


The Forgotten Jedi

by pedromandosimp



Category: Star Wars: Jedi: Fallen Order (Video Game), Star Wars: Rebels, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Adventure & Romance, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Blow Jobs, Dark, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Fluff and Smut, Force-Sensitive Reader, Jedi Reader (Star Wars), Oral Sex, Porn With Plot, Rape/Non-con Elements, Rough Oral Sex, Rough Sex, Shower Sex, Slow Burn, Smut, Sweet Din, Touch-Starved Din Djarin, Violence, daddy Mando
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-13 23:07:22
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 31
Words: 68,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29036703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pedromandosimp/pseuds/pedromandosimp
Summary: You were a youngling at the temple when order 66 hit. Now you try to find you place in the galaxy while avoiding what remains of the empire.You sense...something coming in your direction. You can’t tell what, all you know is that it's a disturbance in the force.That’s when you see him… a Mandalorian in shiny silver beskar walk in. Any mandalorians nowadays are typically bounty hunters. You notice he scans the place with his helmet. You don’t want to be seen. You quickly pull up your hood and stand up, trying to leave unnoticed through the back.
Relationships: Cal Kestis/Reader, Din Djarin/Reader, Din Djarin/You
Comments: 49
Kudos: 304





	1. The Bounty Hunter

_You had been in the infirmary from trying to jump from a height you were not yet prepared for to use the force to slow your impact. You had broken your leg. You were 12 years old. You were preparing to finally become a padawan learner. You were set to become Master Kenobi’s new padawan upon turning 13. You complained about missing training from the injury because you wanted to be able to impress Master Kenobi, unknowing that being injured was what had saved your life the night the Jedi Order fell._

* * *

You sat in a cantina on Tattooine. You wore a large poncho that helped to shield your lightsaber from prying eyes. If anyone figured out what you were, the remnants of the empire could be on you.

Since the fall of the empire it has been safer to show yourself, the New Republic didn’t hunt Jedi… at least the few that remained. But the empire still hasn’t forgotten about you and what you did. And you haven’t forgotten what they did.

You pull your long Auburn hair into a ponytail and eat a few spoonfuls of the stew you had gotten.

Then you feel it.

You sense...something coming in your direction. You can’t tell what, all you know is that it's a disturbance in the force.

That’s when you see him… a Mandalorian in shiny silver beskar walk in. Any mandalorians nowadays are typically bounty hunters. You notice he scans the place with his helmet. You don’t want to be seen. You quickly pull up your hood and stand up, trying to leave unnoticed through the back.

You squeeze passed some other people in the cantina just hoping that the metal man didn’t see you. While you are confident you could take on a mandalorian, it wasn’t on your list of things to do today, and you are still recovering from a run in with some bandits. One of them managed to skim you with a blaster on your right side.

You make it out the back door of the cantina, but you saw the armor following you. Dank farrik, he has seen you. This bounty hunter won’t stop until he has you. You are going to have no choice but to fight him.

You look up and jump up to the roof of the cantina. The element of surprise will be in your favor, you hope.

Mandalorians are skill warriors. Jedi and Mandalorians were ancient enemies and the Mandalorians had shaped their fighting style to counter a jedi’s abilities. You know this isn’t going to be an easy fight, but you will not let the empire capture you.

You see him. He walks out of the back door of the cantina, he scans his helmet across his field of view.

You grab your lightsaber under your poncho on your belt and ignite the green blade. You jump down. The armored man has just a quick enough reaction to jump out of the way. Your saber stabs into the sand.

You look up at him and lunge at him again, he blocks your attack with the beskar on his forearm. He picks his knee up and lands his foot on your abdomen and kicks you back.

“Wait!” he yells at you.

“You aren’t taking me to the empire.” you spit back. “I’ll die before Iet them torture me again.”

You do a flip over him and he grabs the spear that had been on his back and uses it to block your next saber strike. Dank Farrik the mandalorian has a lot of Beskar. 

You feel the pain of the wound in your side from those bandits, you think you may have reopened it. You won't last long if you bleed out in the fight. You flip the switch on your saber to turn it off. You force jump your way from building to building until you reach your speeder. You are about to take off when a blaster shot hits the engine. You turn and see it was the bounty hunter. 

“Y/N!” the mandalorian shouts to you. “I want to talk! Ahsoka Tano sent me!”

You freeze. You haven’t seen her in years. You had seen her a few times at the temple growing up. She was Anakin Skywalker’s apprentice. She was a skilled fighter and had a big heart. The last time you saw her was when she was working with the rebels to defeat the empire on a mission to save you….a mission you try your hardest to forget because of what you lost that day.

* * *

  
_You were in a dark room, you were mounted into a metal pedestal. You were hurting from the pain, trying your best to fight the darkness with in you. But when the Grand inquisitor kept saying that pain would cease if you gave in, it made it so tempting. You didn’t know how much more you could take before you gave in._

_You kept willing yourself to seek through the light side of the force. You had to keep fighting, if not for yourself then for Cal. You couldn’t abandon your best friend. You know Cal would resist everything they tried, you wanted to be as strong as him. You needed to be as strong as him._

_And then more pain radiated through your bones as the pedestal was activated again by a lieutenant, and you let out a deep hoarse gurgling scream again._

* * *

You stare at the shiny helmet and then stand up straight and press the switch on your lightsaber and the green blade disappears.

“How do you know Ahsoka?” You ask.

“It’s a long story, but she said you may be willing to help.” he states. He stares at you with the blank T visor on his helmet, awaiting a response.

You sense he may be telling the truth. And mandalorians don’t usually back down from a fight they are trying to win. “Alright, help with what?” You ask him.

“It will be easier if I show you.”

* * *

You made your way to the Mandalorian’s ship. it was in hangar 3-5. You knew the woman you ran this one. she seemed to be friends with the bounty hunter. The Razor Crest, it was old, but not in too bad of shape. You were still on your toes though, in case the bounty hunter tried anything. You know these ships had a carbonite chamber.

The ramp to the ship lowered, the beskar armored man walked up and into the hull. He reappeared with something in his arms. Then you saw it. A small green head with large pointy ears, and you couldn’t believe it.


	2. An Old Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You were in the Jedi Order?” he seems almost confused at his own question.
> 
> “Yes, Master Plo Koon found me as a young child and brought me there to train in the Jedi way. I was 12 years old when the Empire rose to power. I never officially finished my training.” you admit and trail off a bit. You look down and the green baby “I didn’t know you had survived you little womp rat” you smiled at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! So I had time and just wrote this out!! I hope you like it!!!

You saw the little green head, the pointy ears and the big beady eyes. “Grogu, is that you?” you said smiling. The child reached his arms out for you. The Mandalorian stiffened. 

“You know him?” he questioned.

You took Grogu from the Mandalorian’s arms and pulled him close. You wonder how much to answer the Mandalorian’s question. Could you trust him? And just then you could feel Grogu trying to communicate with you.

_It’s okay, he is good._

You look down at him, then look back up at the Mandalorian. “Well Grogu has spoken well on your behalf. I will trust you for now.” you state to the shiny man. 

“You can understand him too?” he asks.

“In a way yes, it’s almost like I can hear him in my head.” you pause “now as for your question, yes I knew him a long time ago. We were younglings at the Jedi Temple together. The older younglings were tasked with helping care for the younger ones.” you finish your answer and he immediately hits you with another question.

“You were in the Jedi Order?” he seems almost confused at his own question.

“Yes, Master Plo Koon found me as a young child and brought me there to train in the Jedi way. I was 12 years old when the Empire rose to power. I never officially finished my training.” you admit and trail off a bit. You look down and the green baby “I didn’t know you had survived you little womp rat” you smiled at him.

You look back up to the man in armor. “How did he come to be in your care? You don’t exactly strike me as the nanny type.” you laugh slightly as he tilts his helmet to the side. 

“He was a bounty, I had originally turned him over, but…. I knew that whatever they needed him for, it wasn’t good. Since then I’ve been trying to find a Jedi to train him. Ahsoka Tano refused to do it herself, but she pointed me in your direction. Something about you believing in fate.” he says and you feel your gut ball up. Fate. Something Cal taught you to believe in.

* * *

_You were on Kashyyyk, about 17 years old. You had been helping the wookies fight the Empire. While you never received padawan training, you did your best to improve your own skills. You were one of General Tarfuls best fighters. When you had heard from Saw Gerrera that another Jedi had come to Kashyyyk you almost couldn’t believe it._

_When you saw the Jedi finally arrive to your position, you caught your breath. Orange hair, blue eyes, porcelain skin, and the same old dopey face._

_“Cal?” you breathe out._

_You and Cal had been best friends at the Temple. You two were always running off together to cause some trouble. You recalled the one time you snuck out after hours to practice your force jumping and Master Windu had caught you and placed you both on Library grounding._

_He looked at you, studied you for a moment then quickly walked over and hugged you and said “Y/n, you...you’re alive?”_

_You hug him back, holding him tight to you, you never thought you would see him ever again. “Me? Yeah, I managed to escape the Temple. I had heard of Master Tepal’s death...I assumed that meant you had been killed as well.” You say to him_

_He pulled back from the hug “No, he..” Cal sighed “he had sacrificed himself for me to escape the cruiser.”_

_“Oh Cal, I’m so sorry.” You apologized._

_“How did you survive the temple attack?” He questioned._

_......._

_You remember waking to the sounds of blaster fire. You slowly get up for the infirmary bed, grab your crutches and make your way to the halls . You see some of the older younglings and start heading toward them, you are about to call out to them when blaster bolts appear from the crossing hallway and shoot at them. You stop and get close to the wall and hide behind a pillar. Two clones appear to check the younglings bodies._

_“They’re dead, let’s keep moving” one of the clones says. And they walk the other direction._

_You then feel how fast you were breathing. You force yourself to slow your breathing. You know panicking isn’t going to be helpful right now. You head back to the infirmary to grab your things. You grab your lightsaber and hook it onto your belt. If there is one thing you learned from the Masters here it was that ‘your weapon is your life’._

_You forgo the crutches, knowing they will only make noise. You put some weight onto your leg, you wince at the pain, but you have to get through it have any chance of making it out of the temple. While sneaking through the temple you remember where the Jedi fighter ships were kept._

_You had only ever flown in a simulation, but your life depended on it. You make your way to the starship bay.You didn’t ever learn why the clones suddenly turned on you, they had always been allies with the Jedi. You hide behind a cargo crate, there’s two clones in the bay blocking the way to the fighters._

_Dank Farrick. The only way to get there is through them. Okay focus. Remember everything Grand Master Yoda has taught you. You close your eyes and reach out into the force. “Be with me” you quietly breathe out. You open your eyes. You had trained so much. Two clone troopers should be simple enough. Clone troopers, your allies though… No. you push the thought away. They are enemies now, not friends._

_You look over, you see a small crate over in the corner by the troopers, you hold your hand out and force push it to make noise and cause a distraction. Both troopers turn and hold up their blasters._

_“I’ll go check it out.” the one on the right says and starts walking over. This is your chance. The one on the left was left alone. You grab your saber and jump out while igniting it and attacking the clone. You jab your saber easily into his armor. And he falls to the ground. The other clone has turned and started firing his blaster at you. You used your saber to block the incoming shots. You hold out your hand and push a cargo crate into him and he falls over._

_This is your chance. You jump into the Jedi fighter and strap yourself in. You start the engine up. “Come on, come on, come on! Warm up faster you piece of crap!” you yell. You see the clone is back up and firing back at you and the large door to the bay opens up with about 10 more troopers. And then the ship is ready. You grabs the steering control and the thruster as you bolt forward and out of the bay. The Blaster tower is firing at you. “Okay, uh, evasive maneuvers just like in simulation.” you say to yourself as you start tilting and steering in an unpatterned way as you make your way into space._

* * *

“Fate is why anything happens in the universe” You say to the Mandalorian. “No one makes their own fate, the force decides it and guides us.”

“Right you Jedi and this force thing.” he says annoyed. Something about him being annoyed amused you though and you couldn’t help the smile upturn on your lips. 

“I can train him, but already sense his connection with you. It’s strong, he looks to you as a father. And I feel your emotion to him.” you explain. 

“That’s why Ahsoka wouldn’t train him herself. She fears the bond between us.” He admits.

Understandably so. Ahsoka had explained it to you a while ago, what had happened, and who Vader truly was. She knows first hand what emotional connections can cause. Her master had succumbed to the dark side because of his relationships. But you had a different experience. You found your relationships were what had given you strength to resist the dark side. Cal was the reason the 3rd sister, the Grande Inquisitor and even Vader himself never broke you. Anytime you felt as if you were going to give in, you would think about your best friend and push back. 

“She has her reasons. I on the other hand encourage the bond. He needs you” You say. 

“So...will you train him?” He asks confused.

“I can, but he would also need you. Training him would require me to travel with you.” you say, which you had been looking for a way off this wasteland of a planet since your ship had crashed.

“Alright.” he plainly says. “Works for me.” 

You hadn’t expected him to just go with it that easily. He seemed like the kind that likes to work alone.

“Just like that?” you ask.

“I don’t see why not, someone to train him, help watch him, and plus you can fight. Might be good to have you around.” he states.

He sounds somewhat happy to have you come. You smile slightly and try to keep the redness from your cheeks. You look down at Grogu. “Looks like it’s going to be you, me, and your dad.”

  
  



	3. Red

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You squint at him. “Red?” 
> 
> “Your hair, it seemed fitting.” He lets out a soft laugh.
> 
> “Oh so you do make jokes.” You say back, smiling slightly.
> 
> “Occasionally” he says shortly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi you lovely readers and Mando simps. I hope you enjoy this chapter, especially the end ;)

“You three be careful now, especially you little one.” Peli said, as you had come to find out her name. She waved at him as the Mandalorian closed the ramp and went up to the cockpit with Grogu. 

You felt the ship start up and lift off from the ground. You took this chance to take off your poncho, well, Cal’s poncho that you took after he died. It was your favorite poncho of his, with golden brown and white stripes. You pull your shirt out from under your belt and pants and lift it up to inspect the wound you reopened from trying to fight the mandalorian. Your shirt was blood soaked where the wound was and the wound was still bleeding. 

You find the fresher on the ship and try to rinse the wound in the sink. It hurt to touch, but you had to clean it out. The mandalorian had to have a med kit on this ship somewhere. You exit the fresher and search around the ship.You feel a jolt in the ship, you know that you have entered hyperspace now. You press a button that opens a sleeping area, the mandalorians sleeping area, you notice the small hammock above the bed that you assume must be Grogu’s. The metal man may seem like a hardened and careless bounty hunter, but he cared for the green child. You know there’s more to the Mandalorian than he lets on.

You close the sleeping quarters to respect your new partners privacy and resume your search for a med kit. You open one of the crates and there’s one. You grab it and open it up.

“What are you doing?” you hear the deep modulated voice behind you. You hadn’t even heard him come down the ladder for as large as he is.

You turn and hold up the med kit. “I was attacked by some bandits a few days back.” you pull up your shirt to show him the wound “I reopened it when I was fighting you.” you finish your words and sit on the crate that you had found the kit. You grab a sterile wipe out of the kit and dab the wound, wincing. 

The metal man moved closer to you and kneeled down. You could help but notice how broad his shoulders were, and….maker, his scent. You couldn’t describe it but he had a scent that filled you with warmth. 

“Here, let me help you Red” He breathed out and his large gloved hands are on yours as he grabs the wipe and dabs off your wound. You feel him pause and know he probably notices the other scars on your abdomen, ones that had been placed there by the Empire. He doesn’t say anything about them and his hands continue what they were doing.

You squint at him. “Red?” 

“Your hair, it seemed fitting.” He lets out a soft laugh.

“Oh so you do make jokes.” You say back, smiling slightly.

“Occasionally” he says shortly.

“Why do you still have the helmet on?” you questioned.

“I don’t take it off. I have sworn a creed to never let anyone see my face.” he states.

“What kind of creed is that? I know other mandalorians who take their helmets off.” You ask curiously. Sabine and Bo-Katan took their helmets off all the time.

“I am from a different clan. I follow the ways of the old Mandalore.” He answers. He reaches into the med kit from a bacta shot.

You hum, you understand someone’s belief’s and won’t argue with them. But with the Jedi, the old ways of the Jedi are what contributed to their downfall. Thousands of years and the Jedi had not evolved in their ways, ultimately causing their own destruction. 

“Hold still” he says to you. You feel his free hand on your stomach, and you feel lightness in your stomach. Why does he have this affect on you. You can’t even see his face. And then he injects the bacta shot into you. He sets it down and grabs some bandages and starts to cover the wound.

“So what’s your name. You never told me.” You hold a lot of meaning in names. You’ve noticed that names often reflect someone’s personality. 

“Mando” the shiny man promptly states as he finishes covering your wound. You pull your shirt down.

You wrinkle your nose. “That’s not a name.” 

“It’s what I go by. I don’t use my name Red.” He says looking at you through the T-visor.

You glare at him for a second. “Alright metal-head. That seems fitting for you” saying the same explanation to him that he gave you for Red. He chuckles under his helmet. And that is a sound you don’t think you will ever get sick of hearing.  
  


* * *

You wake up in the morning to Grogu climbing onto you. You had slept on the floor of the hull of the ship. The mandalorian-- _Mando,_ had at least been kind enough to get you a blanket and a pillow. You have slept in worse places before, far worse places. 

You grab the little one and cuddle him close. “Hey groggy.” you smile and he coos. Groggy was what the younglings that still have trouble speaking called him at the temple. You miss those days. Just you and the other younglings training, life was simple. 

You stand up holding him, you notice that the pain on your side is almost completely gone, meaning the bacta did its job. You climb up the ladder to the cockpit. Mando is sitting in the pilot’s chair. You sit the copilot chair behind him with the baby in your lap. 

“You’re awake. The bacta really did a number on you.” The metal man says, slightly turning his helmet your way.

Your brow furrows. “What do you mean, how long was I out?” You hadn’t felt like you had slept that long. 

“Almost 30 hours. We are almost to Nevarro.” He says focusing his helmet back to the front. 

30 hours. No nightmares. Strange. You don’t normally let yourself sleep very long because then the nightmares will start. 

You decide to change the subject. “Why are we going to Nevarro?”

“Well with my task of bringing the kid to a Jedi being done, I can focus on hunting again. We’ll need to get credits somehow.” he answers. He is right, you won’t be able to afford to eat without any credits. 

“Coming out of hyperspace” he says and then the ship jolts and you see the volcanic planet. Not as bad looking as Mustafar at least. He flies the ship into the atmosphere and you see a village, he lands just on the outskirts of it. 

“I have friends here.” he states while turning to you.

“You have friends metal-head?” You jokingly ask. He tilts his head at you in a brazen way. You can feel him rolling his eyes under his helmet.

“Anyways, Marshal Cara Dune, and Greef Karga, he runs the guild. You can trust them.” He says to you, remembering how untrusting of him you were. You nod to acknowledge him.

* * *

  
  


You make your way through town following the shiny silver beskar. Grogu was sitting in his floating capsule. Mando leads you to a cantina and walks in, people turn an stare at him, almost looking...scared of him. You hadn’t really seen Mando fight since he wasn’t trying to fight you on Tattooine. You did note that he had quick reflexes. Mandalorians usually did though as part of their fighting style they had developed to fight Jedi so long ago. 

You walk over to a table where an older man sat. He had dark skin and a little bit of white in his hair. Mando sat across from him and you sat down next to Mando.

“Mando! Good to see you! And good to see you too little one!” as he shifted his gaze to Grogu. Then he looked up at you. “And who is this?”

“Karga, this is y/n, a Jedi.” Mando states through his modulator. You catch your breath, you don’t just typically say that you are a Jedi, especially to a man that runs the bounty hunters guild. But Mando did say you could trust him. And after Mando helped you with your wound, you do have much trust in Mando.

“You found one.” Karga says. He looks at you. “You’ll be able to train him?” gesturing to Grogu.

“Yes, the force is still strong with him” you nod. 

Karga looked confused and glanced at Mando.

“It’s some Jedi thing, I’m not really sure.” Mando blurts. You roll your eyes. You don’t understand how no one else knows anything about the force. But then again you were raised in the Jedi Temple where the force is the soul thing they focused on teaching you. 

Karga nodded to Mando “well alright then.”

“I’m here for bounty jobs. I’m getting back into the business.” Mando states and Karga’s eyes light up.

“I’ll finally have my best hunter back, this is great news.” he pulls out some bounty pucks and Mando looks through them and picks out 4. 

“These will do. One more thing” Mando says glancing to you and then to Karga. “If any clients come in with a puck for her, you decline to accept the job. I don’t need hunters after us.”

You were surprised. You hadn’t said anything to him. Well, except when he found you and you told him he wasn’t taking to the Empire. He must just have guessed that the Empire was after you. 

“Consider it done.” the man smiles “ you should see Cara before you leave. She’ll be happy to know that you found a Jedi as well.”

Mando nods and stands up. You follow suit and exit the cantina with him and Grogu still safely in his capsule. 

“Why did you say that? I can handle myself if a hunter were to come after me.” You state, maybe he thinks you are weak. And you know you could take him in a fight if necessary. 

“I know you could, but there is also him to look out for.” He gestures to Grogu. “The Empire is after him and you from our encounter on Tattooine. They also don’t particularly like me either. We all have a target on our backs. Not having any guild members after us just makes our lives easier. Also I don’t want anything to happen to you Red” he reaches up and pushes a strand of your Auburn hair out of your face and behind your ear, his thumb resting on your cheek. You felt your heart start racing as he did this. You stare at him as he stares back at you with the T-visor. Then just as face as his hand had appeared it was gone. 

You find yourself longing for him to return his hand to your face. 

“Let’s go see Cara.” 

* * *

  
  


Cara Dune greeted Mando, you and Grogu when you arrived to the Marshal’s office. She caught up with Mando and what had happened in He had last seen her. You, however, could not stop thinking about Mando’s touch. The way his gloved hand softly caressed your face while moving a strand of hair. The way he made your heart race. This metal man shouldn’t have this affect on you. You haven’t even seen his face or know his name. 

You snapped back to reality when Mando was standing in front of you and said “You ready to go Red?” maybe at first the nickname irritated you, but you were slowly starting to love it when he called you that. 

“Yeah, lets go.” You stand and walk back to the Razor Crest with him.

Once back inside, Grogu was getting tired and you lifted him into the hammock in Mando’s quarters and closed the door. 

The man in beskar had already made his way up to the cockpit and was starting the engine. You climbed up the ladder and sat in the seat behind him. You watch him hit the controls and fly the ship away from the planet and punch in the coordinates for your destination. You enter hyperspace. You watch his fingers, moving your eyes up his arm to his shoulders. You want him. It’s not rational why, but you do. You can’t help the thoughts that enter your mind next and causing you to become wet at your core.

And almost as if he could feel you staring he spins in the chair to face you. 

“What is it?” He asks. Tilting his helmet to the side.

“Oh, uh, nothing, just spaced out.” You say trying to not let him see you blushing.

He stares at you. You don’t know what he is thinking under the helmet. You stand up.

“I’m going to shower” You say and head back to the ladder and descend. You head to the small fresher when there is a strong hand on your waist that turns you and gently pushes back against the wall of the hull. He had followed you down the ladder and you hadn’t even noticed. 

“I didn’t even realize what I was doing when we left the cantina until I had done it.” He says through his modulator. 

You breath hitches. He was _so close_ to you. Your breath fogging on his helmet slightly His strong hands on your waist. The wetness that had started in the cockpit, only increased now.

You find the ability to speak again “are you apologizing? Because you don’t have to.” 

You hear his breathing deepen through his modulator. 

“ _Fuck_ ” He breathes out.

“Exactly what I was thinking.” You say with a smile. 

And then he is on you, pressing his body to yours. The hard beskar against you. His hands move to your ass and squeeze. 

You reach for his belt and start undoing it. He grabs your wrists, making you stop. You look up at him, and then his hands are at your pants, undoing your belt and unbuttoning them and sliding them down your thighs. 

He pulls a glove off and hovers his fingers just far enough from your warmth that you ache for him to touch you. 

“Please” you beg.

“Please what?” He asks.

“Touch me.”

And then he slides a finger in between your folds, feeling your wetness. He starts to rub circles into your clit and you moan. His pace is perfect and making you come undone.

“Maker, you were so wet before I even touched you.” He says, and then moves his finger back more to slip it inside you. You let out a cry when he does and then his thumb is on your clit keeping the pace that his finger was going at. He moved his finger inside you, curling it against you, listening to all the wonderful sounds you make as he does. 

“Mando” You moan, barely able to form your thoughts. Your legs start shaking. 

“You want to cum for me Red? Is that what you want?” he asks roughly. All you can do is small cries. “Say it. Tell me what you want” 

“P-please...I want...fuck...I-I want to cum.” you manage to say in between your pants of pleasure. 

His thumb picks up its pace circling your clit and your small moans pick up as you are on the verge of climax. And then he slips another finger into you and you cry out as he curls them both moving them in and out of you. You feel your release hit you and you cum in his hand. He keeps this thumb and fingers moving as you ride out your orgasm.

You come down from your high and he removes his hand from you. He spins you around so you are facing the wall. You hear him messing with his belt and then you feel it. His hard cock sliding up against your folds coating him in your juices. He moans.

“Fuck, Red, tell me you want it.” He says through his helmet, his breathing is quick.

“Please Mando, _fuck me”_ You beg desperately. 

You feel him line himself up and slowly slide into your slick pussy, moaning as he does. He settles his hands on your hips.

“Maker, you feel so good Red. You have such a good pussy.” he blurts. And then he pulls his cock out slowly then slams back in hard. You yell out. He then starts thrusting with steady pace. One of his hands staying on your hips for leverage, his other--fuck when hand he taken the other glove off-- trailing up your back and resting on the small of your back and he was just letting out small grunts and moans. 

One of his thrusts he did in extra buck when he was all the way in and you yell out.

“Mando..f-fuck...maker” the words falling from your lips. 

“Yeah? Tell me h-how you… _fuck so good_...want it Red.” He demands.

His words making another orgasm swell inside you. You turn your head to the side “fuck me...fuck me _hard._ I want to feel every bit of your cock in me” you say. And almost as if something in mando switched, both of his hands found their way under your shirt to your breasts and he pulled you back against him, the cold beskar against your back, and squeezed your breasts and he quickened his pace, slamming his hips into yours. 

His head was just by your ear, his heavy breathing was in your ear. “F-fuck...I-I’m going to cum…” He says in between breaths and before he says the next thing, you already knew.

“Inside, it’s alright.” 

He moans at your words and pulls you tighter against him. You feel your second orgasm crash over you, and you tighten around him. His thrusts become erratic, and then he trusts once more in, burying himself in you as he fills you.

You both stay there like that for a while, both of you catching your breath. His hands fall from your breasts to your hips and he slowly pulls out. You find the energy to pull your pants up and turn around to face him. He was putting his cock back into his pants. 

You look up at the t-visor that is staring right back at you. 

You lay a hand on the chest plate of his beskar. “I think I am going to enjoy traveling with you metal-head” You smile at him.

  
  



	4. The Force

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “And you’ll be able to teach him how to resist the dark-side?” Mando asked.
> 
> “I can teach him all I know, but it’s up to the person on what their fate becomes.” you answer while looking down at Grogu and he is just staring at his little ball.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi you lovely readers and Mando simps. Thank you for all of the support! It means so much!

You awoke on the floor. Where you had slept the night before. Mando had still slept in his own sleeping quarters. How were things going to be now since you two had sex last night. His need to hear you beg having you come so undone for him. 

You sat up and grabbed your other set of clothes from your bag and went to the fresher to shower like you had originally said you were going to do before he had grabbed you and got caught up in other activities. You start the water hoping that it will get hot. It’s been so long since you have been able to take a hot shower. You took off your dirty clothes. Stripping down to your bare skin. 

Steam started to fill the room, meaning the water was hot. Thank goodness. You step in and let the warm water hit your skin feeling a sense of relief. You realize you don’t have any soap, except Mando’s soap. You reach and put some into your hand and start to clean yourself. You like the way it smells like him. Hopefully he doesn;t mind you using it.

You finish up and realize there is also no towel. You wait to air dry and then slip into your clean clothes. You look in the mirror, you brush through your hair with your fingers. Your hair is so unruly that it doesn’t matter if you brush it or not. 

You step out of the fresher and the little green bug is standing outside the door. You smile down at him. “Hey you” You pick him up and climb up to the cockpit, Mando is sitting in the pilot seat. You take your spot in the copilot seat. 

“Good morning” cracks out through the modulator

“Good morning” You say back but then your stomach grumbles.

“There’s some rations in the cabinet behind you. The kid also needs to eat.” he replies to your stomach grumble.

You look behind you and open the cabinet and grab two of the rations. You open the one for the little one and give him bits of the food. You open yours and you begin to eat it.

“Make sure he chews his food. I’ve seen him swallow creatures whole, but I don’t want him to not chew when he needs to.

You laugh slightly. The Mandalorian really did care for Grogu. He really has a soft side for his kid. You saw some of his soft side when he helped you with your wound. You liked it, it made him seem like there really was a person behind the helmet.

  
  


“What is our first destination?” You ask curiously. 

“Corusant. We’ll be there tomorrow.” He answers.

You feel your heart drop. _Home._ You weren’t born on Corusant, you had been born on Alderaan, but you had left so young you don’t remember living there.The Jedi Temple was the only true home you knew. You haven’t been to Corusant since you left when you were 12. Was the Jedi Temple even still standing? Or had it been completely demolished during the Empire reign?

“Oh alright then.” You say quietly and continue eating.

Grogu is staring at a ball by Mando, he reaches his hand out and the ball flies to him. You smile. “That was good Grogu” He looks up at you as you speak. “We’ll work on some training today while we are stuck on the ship.”

“What kind of training do you do?” the non-jedi asks.

“Well, he is still young, we will mostly focus on meditation and connecting to the force.” Grogu is too little to handle very much. “What have you seen him do?”

“Well he brings that ball to himself all the time for starters. He held a mudhorn suspended in the air, and he healed Karga one time.” he says.

“He force-healed?” you ask stunned.

“Yeah, that.”

“It’s impressive that he can do that so young and without proper training.” You say. 

“So what is this force thing? You and Ahsoka both talk about it, but I have no clue what you mean. Ahsoka said something about it being the higher power that binds all living things.” The mandalorian says now turning in his chair to you. 

“The force is an energy that connects all life in the galaxy. It is an entity that controls the past, present, and future. Force-sensitive people gain abilities from it. There is however the light-side of the force and the dark-side of the force. Jedi, as an example are light-side force-sensitives, meaning we use our abilities for peace, justice and protection. The Jedi were the peacekeepers of the Old Republic.” You finish explaining.

“And what about the dark-side?” He tilts his helmet.

You look at Grogu, then back up at him “The dark-side users were the Sith and the Inquisitors. They use their abilities for selfish reasons, destructive reasons. Many Jedi have fallen to the dark-side throughout history. As a Jedi it is a constant battle to not give in to your own selfish desires. Once the dark-side takes root in you, it’s consuming, and it’s almost impossible to come back to the light.” 

“And you’ll be able to teach him how to resist the dark-side?” Mando asked.

“I can teach him all I know, but it’s up to the person on what their fate becomes.” you answer while looking down at Grogu and he is just staring at his little ball. 

  
  


* * *

  
  
  


You are sitting in the Hull on your knees, Grogu sitting across from you. You have been meditating for an hour, trying to help him find his way through the force to connect. You can feel him getting tired, you open your eyes. Mando is just climbing down the ladder. “Alright little one, I think that’s enough stress on you for one day.” Grogu opens his eyes and blinks sleepily. You pick him up and put him in his hammock and shut the door. 

You turn around to Mando on the other side of the hull staring at you. You raise an eyebrow. “Yes metal-head? Is there something I can help you with?” 

“There is a lot that you can help me with, Red.” He says and then he turns out the lights and you hear him fumbling with things and metal hitting the ground, then you hear a hiss. 

“Mando, what are you doing” and you jump slightly when you feel his hands on your hips. “Was it really necessary to make it pitch black in here?” and you are cut off with soft lips on yours, Mando’s lips. He took off his helmet. You eagerly move your lips with his. You put your hands on his chest, his _bare chest_. He slips his tongue into your mouth and his hands move to pull up your shirt. You pull away from the kiss and let him pull the shirt over your head and toss it across the hull. The cool air of the hull hitting your exposed skin, helping your nipples to get hard. 

Then he is back on your mouth, attacking it with his tongue. You feel your pussy start to get wet. And after last night, you knew you wanted him again. You pull away from the kiss. “ I want to make you feel good.” you say and you sink down to your knees. He still had his pants on with a bulge at his crotch, you reach to the waistband and unbutton them. You pull his hard cock out and give it a few good pumps, with your hot breath breathing on the head. 

“Maker, fuck.” Mando says with and unmodulated voice while intertwining a hand in your hair. You think his raw voice is the best sound you have ever heard.

You smile, this time it’s going to be you making him come undone. You take him into your mouth, tasting the precum that was already at the head. You take as much of his length as you can. The hand in your hair tightens its grip slightly. You pull your mouth back, running your tongue along the vein on the bottom. 

“F-fuck, that’s a good girl” He moans above you. 

You hum with him in your mouth and he moans again. You start to bob your head back and forth, hollowing your cheeks. At this point Mando is just spewing out small praises and moans. 

“Maker, I just want to fuck that mouth” He breathes out. You bob your head back, taking him out of your mouth with a pop. 

“Then do it.”

“ _Fuck Red,_ Maybe letting you travel with me was a bad idea, you might just be the death of me.” he admits as you put your mouth back around his cock, and place your hands on his hips and relax your jaw. The hand that is still in your hair tugs slightly, tilting your head up and he starts to thrust his hips into your mouth. It’s not rough, but it also isn’t gentle. He hits the back of your throat with his thrusts, you gag a few times but nothing you can’t handle. 

“The mouth is so fucking perfect Red. I-I fuck, I’m going to….I’m going to cum.” He loosens the grip in your hair, you assume so that you can pull off of him if you want. You tighten your grip on his hips as a response. 

“Oh fuck, you’re r-really about...to fucking swallow what I give you.” You feel his thrusts get off rhythm and then he stiffens and stills in your mouth. You feel the warm fluid shoot into your mouth from his pulsing cock, taking every drop he gives you. 

You feel his body relax and he starts to soften in your mouth. You take your mouth off of him and tuck him back into his pants.

He kneels down, pushing your shoulders to lay back on the blanket on the ground, he lowers his head down and kisses you. Able to taste himself still in your mouth. His hands go to your pants and unbuckle your belt and he pulls you pants off. His mouth moves from your mouth to your neck, sucking enough on the skin to leave a mark where your neck meets your collar bone

You moan as he breathes against your skin “So gorgeous” and he moves from your neck to your chest, grabbing one breast with his hand and softly pinching the hard nipple. He put his mouth around the other nipple, swirling his tongue and making you arch your back and cry out.

“Fuck, Mando” You moan. 

“Patience Red.” He says against your skin.

“Fuck you and your patience.” You retort.

“Is that a promise?” He laughs. He trails soft kisses down the rest of stomach, you know he can feel the scars on your skin, he pauses at each one and gives an extra kiss to them. The sentiment behind that could almost bring tears to your eyes if he wasn’t making you fall apart right now. The sweet gesture makes you smile slightly. 

He then gets to your hips and sucks on one side _hard_ and you gasp. You are definitely going to have a bruise there.

He moves lower so that his face is right above your core and all its wetness. He grabs your underwear with his teeth, grazing his teeth across your skin as he does. He pulls them off with an agonizingly slow pace. You are about to whine when he blows some air onto you, giving you goosebumps and making you shake. 

And then he is on you, his tongue on your clit. You cry out as you move a hand to his hair. Which you notice is long and curly and so fucking soft. Your thoughts are cut off when he starts sucking on your clit. And you moan his name and he hums in response. His hands find your ass cheeks and he gives them a squeeze.

You lay there moaning into the dark while he makes quick work of you. Your orgasm is approaching. 

“Mando...I’m...I’m so close” You manage to form the words. And then you feel two of his large fingers enter you and you cry out.

“Fuck, Mando!”

“That’s it Red, I want you to cry out my name as you cum all over my face.” He says against your heat and then darts his tongue out again, circling it around your clit. He hands pressing into your ass so hard you’ll have bruises there too. 

He works his fingers in you, as you are so close to climaxing, and then he curls them and hits that spot inside you and you can’t hold on anymore. Your orgasm hits you like a speeder, you tighten the grip of your hand in his hair and you are coming all over Mando breathlessly saying his name as you do.

You go limp, and you feel his face remove itself from you. You feel him make his why back up your body and lay down next to you. He leans his head over your and kisses you. You move your lips with his and you are able to taste yourself on him. 

He breaks the kiss and relaxes back down beside you. 

You lay your head on the side of his chest. He is warm and muscular. Mando gives you a feeling of safety, like the Empire could never hurt you again, even if they tried. 

“Can I ask you something?” the unmodulated voice says. His own voice, maker, you love the sound.

“Depends on the question.” You say.

“You have so many scars, I know when we met you said you would never go back to the Empire, did they do that to you?” He asks cautiously, not trying to make you uncomfortable.

You pause, just laying with your head on his chest, he starts to stroke your hair with one hand.

“You don’t have to answer.” He blurts.

“No, it’s.. It’s fine.” You start “they did do this to me. They held me captive for years” you had never been entirely sure how long, but a decent amount of time had passed, because you noticed the new lines that had appeared on Cal’s face when he rescued you. You continue on “I have a particularly strong connection to the force, they wanted to make me an Inquisitor.”

“What’s an inquisitor?” He asks clueless. 

“They hunted force-sensitive people, they didn’t want new Jedi to arise and pose a risk to the Empire. They tortured me, tried to break me, they wanted me to force them to stop hurting me by tapping into the darkside. I came so close to doing it so many times, just to make the pain stop.” You admit to him.

“How did you resist it?” his voice seemed to get softer and softer like he was genuinely concerned.

“I thought about my best friend, Cal.” You almost choke saying his name out loud. You lost him so many years ago, but it still pains you. “He and I grew up in the Order together, he had been a year older and had started his padawan training, so he hadn’t been at the temple when the Order fell. I had heard word of his Master’s death and assumed that meant he had been killed as well, but we found each other 5 years later. We helped each other become better Jedi.”

“He’s the connection that gave you strength to fight it.” He said, remember your conversation when you agreed to train Grogu. 

You nod on his chest. “Anytime I thought about just letting the darkness take me, I remembered how strong Cal was and how he would fight. I tried to be like him.”

“You are strong, Red.” He says bluntly. “Strong and brave, also stupid. You tried to ambush a Mandalorian by yourself.”

You roll your eyes and laugh. “In a real fight I could take you on metal-head.”

He lets out a low chuckle, you feel the vibrations on his chest. He leans down and kisses the crown of your head. “I wouldn’t dream of possibly hurting you.”

  
  
  



	5. Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You made your way through the city to where the Temple was, it was still there. It was run down and parts of it destroyed, but still standing. You took a deep breath. You didn’t really know what you hoped to gain from coming here. You walk over and start to walk up the steps.
> 
> You make it to the top of the steps and look at the large double doors in front of you. You could feel it in the force. All the death and destruction that happened here still lingering around here. You push the doors open, it’s dark, the only light coming through from the parts of the ceiling that had caved in. Piles of rubble covered the ground. Seeing your home, the place you grew up, like this causes tears to swell in your eyes. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello you lovely readers and Mando simps. The reader goes back to the Jedi Temple for the first time in this chapter. You also get some flashback with Obiwan.

You wake up to the lights being on in the hull again, you hear the sound of fabric moving behind you. 

“Is your helmet on?” you call out.

“Yes, you can turn around” the modulated voice responds. You roll over and see Mando on the other end of the hull where he had left his armor last night. He was just tying his boots. You realize you are still naked from last night. You find where Mando and dropped your underwear last night and slip them on. You then stand up and put your pants and shirt on. Then you realize Mando is staring at you.

“Like what you see?” you say with a smirk.

He walks over to you and takes the tip of your chin between his thumb and index finger “You are so  _ beautiful _ ”

You feel color rising to your cheeks. This tall armored man has such an effect on you. You wish you could kiss him right now, you wish you could see his face with the long curls that you had felt in your hand last night. 

The ship jolts out of hyperspace and shakes. Mando releases your chin and goes up to the cockpit. You open the door to the sleeping quarters and pick up Grogu who was still sleeping. “Good morning little womp rat.” You say and head up to the cockpit and sit in the copilots chair and you see it.  _ Home. _ Coruscant. You don’t know how much the planet has changed over the years, or if it has even changed at all. 

“My bounty here shouldn’t take too long. They aren’t a fighter, just someone who skipped bail.” You hear come from the man in the pilot seat.

“Okay.” is all you say. 

  
  


* * *

  
  
  


Mando lands in a ship lot and you both head down the hull. He places Grogu into the floating crib. 

“I’m not going to come with you, I have my own business I would like to do here.” You state and he turns to you.

“Coruscant may be in the core of the galaxy, but it’s still not safe. There are some low-lifes that live here.” He says.

“I know, I lived here. The Jedi Temple is here. Or at least it was, I don’t know if it is still standing.” You tell him. “And I’m a big girl” You say as you hook your lightsaber onto your belt, and then grab your poncho and put it over your head. “I’ll be fine.” 

The visor stays still for a second. Then Mando opens his weapons cabinet and hands you a commlink. “Take this then.” you take it from his hand and hook it onto your belt. “You contact me if you get into trouble and I’ll be there as soon as I can.” He says sounding concerned. 

You nod.

Mando opens the ramp and walks down with Grogu following in his capsule.

“Mando, may the force be with you” you say.

He turns and looks at you and tilts his helmet “uh,  _ what?” _

You roll your eyes and let out a laugh “it means good luck metal-head.”

He stays quiet for a second then says “right uh...good luck.” He turns and heads off into the city. 

You head down the ramp yourself. The atmosphere, the smell, the Coruscant dirt beneath your feet, it all takes you back to the days of the Order. 

* * *

  
  
  


_ You are walking through the halls with Master Koon. You have been called to the Jedi council. You don’t know why, you haven’t gotten in trouble recently, at least nothing big.  _

_ “Ease up little one. There’s nothing to be worried about.” Master Koon interjects. You feel your anxiety subside a bit. Master Koon wouldn’t tell you to calm down if there was something bad happening, he was always honest like that. _

_ You make your way to the council chambers and walk in with Master Koon. He walks over to his chair and sits down. You look around at all the Masters sitting in their seats, some of them in person, some of them holograms as they are off world on missions. _

_ “Take your place in the middle young one.” Master Windu tells you. You go to the center of the room. You haven’t stood here since you did your force-sensitivity test when you arrived years ago.  _

_ “Y/n much promise shown, you have” Grand Master Yoda starts “acknowledged this, we have. While too young you still are, set you up with a future Master we have.” _

_ Your eyes widen. You are finding out who your Master will be for when you move up to a padawan. _

_ Master Obiwan Kenobi starts speaking “I have watched you progress as a youngling. I have seen your abilities with a lightsaber and your strength with the force. The only thing is your inherit disregard for the rules and doing as you are told.” He goes on to say and you look down, but then look back up at him. “But I had Anakin Skywalker as my padawan before who is also notorious for those same things. Therefore, the council and I have agreed that I will be the best fit for you.” _

_ You almost couldn’t believe it. You were going to be Obiwan Kenobi’s padawan when you turn 13. The master of the Soresu fighting technique was going to train you.  _

_ “You may speak young one” Obiwan says to you. _

_ “I-I can’t tell you how honored I am Master. I look forward to learning the ways of the force from you.” _

_ “Train well, being a padawan is much different from anything you do here in the Temple. Outside these walls is life and death, you should be mindful of that and train as such.” Master Kenobi tells you.  _

_ “Yes Master, I will” You respond. _

_ “You are dismissed then y/n” He says. You put your arms together and bow to the council and you turn around and exit. You can’t help the biggest smile that comes to your face as you leave.  _

  
  


* * *

You made your way through the city to where the Temple was, it was still there. It was run down and parts of it destroyed, but still standing. You took a deep breath. You didn’t really know what you hoped to gain from coming here. You walk over and start to walk up the steps.

You make it to the top of the steps and look at the large double doors in front of you. You could feel it in the force. All the death and destruction that happened here still lingering around here. You push the doors open, it’s dark, the only light coming through from the parts of the ceiling that had caved in. Piles of rubble covered the ground. Seeing your home, the place you grew up, like this causes tears to swell in your eyes. 

You make your way through, passing the courtyard where you and the other younglings would practice dueling. You look up and see the ledge that you had jumped from that caused you to break your leg. It’s crazy to think that you are now able to jump from any height and land perfectly. 

If there is anything here that is to be useful to you, it would be in the library archives. You make your way through the halls, seeing some blood stains on the floors as you do, you feel your stomach churn. 

You arrive at the doors of the library. They used to glide open, but they stood there unmoving. You grab your lightsaber from under your poncho and ignite the green beam. You press it into the door and watch and the metal around heats up and glows orange. You moved the blade, cutting out a hole for you to go through. Once you finish cutting it, you disengage your saber and push your hand out, pushing the metal out causing it to fall forward and land on the ground and making dust fill the air. 

You step through with your right foot and duck below the top of the hole you made, you straighten back up and look around. The shelves were empty and there were piles of ash on the ground. The Empire must have burned all the books. You can’t say you are surprised, but you do feel like this trip was a complete waste of time now. You turn to leave when you feel something calling out to you. 

Yon turn back around and see a blue glow deeper within the room in the darkness. You slowly make your way over, entering the darkness at the other end of the room. The blue light goes away just as you get to it. You grab the larger slab of rubble and flip it over, moving it to the side. And what had been underneath the slab was a holocron. 

Holocrons were used to preserve Jedi teachings and information. This would be perfect to help you teach Grogu. You pick it up, your visit here wasn’t completely hopeless. You turn and make your way back to the other end of the library. You stop as some men emerge from the hole in the door you had made. There’s maybe about 9 of them. 

“Well, well, look what we have here.” the man in the middle starts “we saw you walking in the streets, didn’t think much until I caught a glimpse of that hilt under your poncho. Those weapons sell for a large amount on the black market.”

“It’s not just for show, I know how to use it” You spit back “So I suggest you leave while you still can.” 

He and some of the men laugh. “We won’t be leaving without that blade. So you can hand it over to us the easy way, or” He and the other men pull out their blasters from their holsters “we can take it from your corpse.” 

You grab your saber under your belt and ignite it, the green light filling the room. “I’ll take my chances.” 

They start firing their blasters at you, you block them effortlessly, you reflect two of the shots back at two of the mercenaries, and hit them point blank in the chest. 

“Gas out!” one of the men yells and they all take cover and grab for their backs. You flip your saber off and duck behind one of the library tables and flip it on it’s side. You hear the hiss of the gas releasing from the grenade. The air filled with smoke, you could feel it making your lungs feel heavy. You needed to get out of there. You reach for the comlink on your belt. 

You press the button and speak “Mando, Mando are you there?”

“I’m here”

“I ran into some mercenaries..” you start coughing from the gas “they shot some kind of” you cough again “gas. I can’t breathe.” you cough again and manage to say “I need” you cough again “help.” 

“Hold on, I’m on my way, Red.” 

You cough some more, you are starting to feel light-headed. But you hear them walking around the room. They probably have gas masks if they were ready to gas you. You move quietly from behind the table to the side of the room. You see a figure in the smoke, you move carefully holding in the cough fit swelling in your lungs, you aren’t in his field of vision. You go up and ignite your blade and strike him down quickly. You turn off your blade and move quickly behind some cover as blaster fire shoots in the direction of where you had struck the man down. 

You can’t fight it anymore, you start coughing, trying to breathe in some breathable air but the gas just fills your lungs. You feel like you may pass out. That was probably their goal, easy fight when the enemy can’t fight back. You finally manage to suppress your coughing, but you hear the men approaching you, coughing gave away your position. 

You jump out, high enough you jump over them, doing a flip, and igniting your blade. You block the blaster bolts and force push one of them into the wall hard, knocking him out, while simultaneously spinning your saber in your hand and piercing it through the abdomen of a man behind you.

You start coughing and the dizziness overtakes you, nearly making you fall over. You manage to find cover as the remaining four men fire at you. Your butt on the ground and your back against the cover you are using. Your lungs are burning, you clutch your chest and feel tears forming in your eyes as you struggle to breathe. 

“What the hell?” You hear one of the men say.

Suddenly the blaster fire over your head stops, and you hear it focused in a different direction.

You manage to roll yourself over, your surroundings are spinning. You raise your head over to look into the cloud of smoke. You see flashes of red, and see the shadows. You see the shadow of the mandalorian, he has one for the men in his grip and flips him over onto the ground. A blaster bolt ricochets off his armor and he turns to the man you had shot it. You can’t hold yourself up any more. You roll back over to rest, and cough. 

Moments later it’s quiet except for your coughing. Before you know it Mando is kneeling in front of you. 

“We need to get you out of here.”

“Wait” you voice sounding more like a croak “the holocron” You cough “I dropped it” 

“I’ll get it” He leaves from his spot next to you, you hear him walking around, then he is back next to you. “This cube thing?”

You nod.

“Alright” he kneels down “put your arm around me.” You oblige and feel one of his arms dip beneath your back and the other at the bend of your knees and you are being lifted off the ground. Like actually lifted away, you go through the hole in the ceiling. His jetpack, you forgot about that thing. It’s probably how he got to you so fast. Feel the normal air hit your lungs and you are thankful. Though you are still coughing, and incredibly lightheaded. You tighten your grip around the mandalorian’s shoulder as you make your way back to the Crest. 

  
  



	6. Jedi Mind Trick

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “What was that?” you hear the modulated voice next to you.
> 
> “An old Jedi mind trick. I manipulated the force to persuade his mind.” You answer him.
> 
> He stiffens “you haven’t used that on me before right?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello you lovely readers and mando simps. This chapter has some angst, fluff, and smut. Enjoy ;)

Mando lands back at the Crest and lowers the ramp. He carries you up and sets you on top of the blanket where you sleep and leans you against the wall. Your lungs are still burning and you are still coughing. 

“Hold on” He says and steps away to grab a medkit, there is an inhaler there and he pulls it out and hands it to you. You hold it up to your mouth and inhale as you push down on it. You feel the burning in your throat start to subside, and repeat the same motion with the inhaler trying to get more of the soothing spray into your lungs.

It’s easier to breathe, you are still coughing, but not nearly as bad. Mando is still kneeling in front of you, unmoving.

“Thank you.” you say to him. 

“That was dioxis gas, more than a few minutes of exposure and it causes respiratory failure. You should have gotten out of there.” He says bluntly. 

You furrow your eyebrows. “Yeah, I would have if it hadn’t been for the men trying to kill me, or did you forget about them?” You say, now frustrated. You cough a little bit. 

“Well why would you put yourself in a position where your enemy blocked your only way out? That was foolish.” The words are harsh, maybe more harsh than he meant for them to be.

You slam a hand on the ground. “I went in for the holocron, it was calling to me. It’s a Jedi thing you wouldn’t understand” You angrily say through gritted teeth. 

“So you risked your life for a _box_?” He questions.

“It’s not just a box, it contains Jedi teachings, something to help _your_ son.” You cough and put a finger on his chestplate “And it’s not like I meant to run into those mercenaries! I grabbed the holocron and on my way they showed up. I would have been fine if it hadn’t been for the gas.” you respond still fuming with anger. 

“And what if I hadn’t gotten there in time? You would be dead.” He grabs your wrist of the hand that’s on his chestplate and nudges it off.

“You’re a bounty hunter, I’m sure you’ve been in tight spots as well.” You say.

“You have complete disregard for your own life.” He stands up without another word and climbs the ladder to the cockpit. You feel the ship take off. You let out a frustrated sigh and rest your head on the pillow. 

* * *

  
  
  


You wake when you hear Mando climbing down the ladder, you roll over and look at him. He glances at you, but quickly goes into the fresher. You hear the shower turn on. You wait, for what seems like hours. When the door finally opens and he is wearing his helmet and just his shirt and pants. He sets his beskar next to the wall.

“Mando...can…” You take a breath “can you come lay with me.” 

He looks at you. He walks over to the light and flicks it off. You hear the sound of him removing his helmet. Then you wait in the darkness, you don’t hear him move, you can feel that he is still by the light. You sigh and roll back to face the wall. Then you hear him walk over and lay down beside you, his hand resting on your waist, his body against your back, and his hot breath on the back of your neck sending shivers down your spine.

“I...I didn’t mean to get mad earlier.” He says, breaking the silence, his unmodulated words humming in your ear. “I don’t know why I did, I just...you have this effect on me. I can’t explain it, we’ve only known each other a few days, but...I feel like if something happened to you Red, _I_ wouldn’t be able to _breathe_.” 

You catch your breath and turn to face him, your nose touching his. You bring your hands up to his face and rest them on his cheeks, he takes a deep breath when you do, and you realize that no one has probably ever held his face like this. 

“I’m sorry, didn’t realize you felt that way, that you cared.” You say to him.

“I don’t think I realized it myself until you contacted me on the comlink saying you were in trouble.” He admits “I tracked the signal and got there as fast as I could.”

You lean forward and place your lips on his softly. He kisses back not in the rough and lustful way he did before, but in a tender, _needing_ way. You move your hand that’s on his top cheek to his hair still wet from his shower and stroke the soft curls with your thumb.

You stay like that, just kissing each other softly, nothing more. This is the most emotion you’ve ever seen from Mando, and you want to savor it, engrain what the sound of his voice when he is sweet and worried. You break away from the kiss.

“You have the same effect on me.” You whisper and kiss him again.

* * *

  
  
  


You get up before Mando, careful not to wake him, and make your way through the dark to the fresher. You still haven’t been able to do any laundry and you only have 2 sets of clothes. The ones you have on are the cleanest so you decide to put them back on when you finish. 

You turn on the shower, and wash your hair and body with Mando’s soap, taking in the scent. You lather up your hair and rinse it. You step out of the shower and see the towel that Mando used last night was hanging there. Surely he wouldn’t mind. You grab it and dry off, you slip your clothes back on, and wring your hair dry and brush your fingers through it. You put it back into a braid and step out of the fresher. 

Mando was up and putting his forearm beskar on, the rest of the ensemble already in its respective places. He looks at you. “Good morning.” comes out through the modulator. 

“Morning” You say with a smile. 

You hear the baby coo in the sleeping quarters that neither of you have used the last two nights. You open the door and see Grogu sitting up in his hammock. You grab him and set him on the floor. Then you remember, the _holocron._

“Where did you put the holocron?”

Mando stares at you for a second “oh, the box” he goes over and opens a cabinet and grabs the holocron from it and hands it to you. “What exactly is that thing? Why was it so important?”

“Holocrons hold knowledge and wisdom pertaining to the force. This is probably one of the last jedi holocrons in existence. Whatever information is in here, it may help me train him.” You explain to him. 

“It just looks like a box to me.” He states plainly and you roll your eyes at him.

“Only a jedi can open it.” You tell him as you sit on the floor, placing the holocron in front of you and cross your legs and place your palms on your thighs. You close your eyes and make the holocron float. You focus your energy on it, channeling the light-side of the force to allow you access to it. You will the holocron to turn its corners and open. You open your eyes and see holograms of information coming from the holocron.

“Maker...okay it’s not just a _box_ ” Mando admits. 

“Told you so” You respond with a smirk.

Grogu’s beady eyes are watching in astonishment as he walks over to you and climbs into your lap. 

“This will help me train you.” You say to him while looking down at him. 

* * *

  
  
  


You land on Corellia about an hour later. 

“I want you to come with me on this one. This bounty can fight, he’s killed a few other hunters.” Mando turns to you. You nod, happy to go as back up for him. Just as he told you the night before that he doesn’t want anything to happen to you, you don’t want anything to happen to him either.

You both head down the ladder, you pull your poncho on and hook your saber onto your belt. Mando opens the weapons cabinet and hands a blaster and holster to you. 

“Do you know how to use one of these?” He asks. You did, during the Empire’s reign it was safer to use one instead of your blade that attracted more attention then you wanted. 

“Yes, but-”

“We want to keep a low profile here, too many Empire loyalists here. Only use your laser sword if necessary.” He tells you.

“Alright, blaster it is.” You say and take the blaster and the holster from him. You put the holster around your waist and tuck the blaster in. You go over and lift Grogu into his capsule. 

The three of you exit the ship and make your way into the city. Mando leads you to a casino. “Last known location was here” He states, you go over to the bar with him.

Mando pulls out the puck and shows the hologram to the bartender. “I’m looking for him, I have sources that say he has been here recently.” Mando says to him.

“He was here maybe a week ago. Stayed a few nights, haven’t seen him since.probably moved on to some other cities.” the bartender responds.

“Thanks.” comes out from the helmet. 

Just then a man comes to the other side of you “Hello there gorgeous, say why don’t you let me buy you a drink? Then we can play a game together.” Mando turns his head slightly.

“No thanks, I’m good.” You respond back to him, shutting him down, you could smell the alcohol on his breath. 

“Oh come on sweet cheeks” He says and grabs your ass. You see Mando shift and put his hand on his blaster. You hold your hand up, signaling for him to stop. You look over at the man. And then slightly wave your hand that you had put up.

“You have a drinking problem and you should seek help.” You say.

“I have a drinking problem and I should seek help.” He repeats back to you. Mando tilts his helmet, looking at you. 

“You are going to go home and think about all the women that you have ever made feel uncomfortable, and work to atone for it.” You irritatingly say to the man and slightly wave your hand again

“I’m going to go home and think about the women I have made uncomfortable and work to atone for it.” He repeats and walks off. 

“ _What was that?”_ you hear the modulated voice next to you.

“An old Jedi mind trick. I manipulated the force to persuade his mind.” You answer him.

He stiffens “you haven’t used that on me before right?” You are almost offended at the question, but you know he is pretty clueless about anything to do with the force and the Jedi. 

“Of course not” you say, “it only works on the weak-minded.” You smirk at him. He just stares at you. 

He lets out an annoyed sigh. You let out a small laugh. 

“Come on, we need to find a way to the next city.” He says and starts to walk out, Grogu’s capsule following him, and you follow the capsule. 

You walk through the city and find a place to rent a speeder. Mando asks the owner the same thing he asked the bartender. The man tells them he has seen the bounty and took off east. Mando chooses a speeder big enough for all of you and pays the owner some credits. You get in the drivers side of the speeder. Mando walks over and stands there. 

“I’m exceptionally well at driving a speeder, I’m also not a terrible pilot either.” You scoff. He sighs _again,_ but he doesn’t argue. He picks Grogu up and puts the capsule in the back, securing it down then gets in the passenger seat with Grogu on his lap. 

You take off, you love the feeling of the wind through your hair. Grogu is smiling against the wind as well and you chuckle to yourself. The armored man holding him though has been stoic. He has been since the casino. Did the mind trick freak him out? Does he think you are manipulating him? You don’t allow yourself to dwell on it, as you see the next city in view. 

When you arrive it’s dark, you find a lodge and go to the concierge. 

“We are looking for a room” he says sounding irritated. 

“That will be 100 credits.” The Twi’lek lady says. Mando pulls out the credits and sets them on the desk. The lady hands him a key and you follow him to the room. 

The room is small, a single queen bed. A bed, you can’t remember the last time you actually slept on a bed. There isn’t much of a view, it’s Corellia, so not the prettiest planet. 

You get Grogu ration and one for yourself and he sits in his capsule and eats it. You sit on the bed and eat yours, you didn’t realize how hungry you were. Mando sits in the chair by the window, staring out it, not saying a word. 

You didn’t know what he was thinking. After the conversation last night, the things he said, did your stunt in the casino make him question everything? Was he worried that you are doing the same thing to him? 

After Grogu finishes his food he yawns and blinks his eyes sleepily. You smile at him . “Get some sleep womp rat” You say and close the capsule. You glance over at Mando, still looking out the window. You sigh and go into the bathroom and turn on the shower. You already showered today, but anything is better than sitting there in silence, not knowing what the man in armor is thinking about. You undress yourself, setting the blaster, holster and your lightsaber on the counter of the sink. You step into the warm water, letting it fall onto your skin. 

You stand there for a while, just soaking up the warmth. You didn’t want to go out and face the statue by the window. You hear the door to the bathroom open and closed. You jump slightly. 

“Mando?” You ask through the curtain. 

“Do you trust me?” an _unmodulated_ voice says. 

You pause, surprised at his raw voice “yes” you finally respond. 

“Turn around and face the wall and close your eyes.” He orders and you do just that.

“Okay, I am.” You call out. You hear the curtain move and feel him step in behind you. Then you feel fabric over your eyes. You gasp. He is tying a blindfold around you. Once you feel him pull the knot he says” Open your eyes, can you see anything?”

You open your eyes and all you see is black. “No, I can’t.”

“Good” He spins you around and crashes his lips onto yours, pushing you back against the shower wall and pressing his body against yours, and you can feel his hard cock against you. You move your lips in sync with his, desperate for him. He pulls away from the kiss and kisses up your jawline, making you moan. He stops when he gets to your ear and all you hear his his breathing and the water falling.

“I almost shot that man dead” he says in a deep whisper “the one at the casino, calling you ‘gorgeous’ and ‘sweet cheeks’” he nibbles on the lobe of your ear. Your breathing is fast, hearing him say all this is turning you on.

“And then when he grabbed your ass” he growls and puts his own hand on your ass, you whimper at his grasp “I wouldn’t have thought twice about killing him. How he dared to put his hands on you.” He bites and sucks on your neck, drawing out a desperate moan from you. He pulls back and you feel him inspecting the bruise that was forming. 

“Then you did that...that mind trick...it was so... _hot._ I wanted to take you right then and there on that casino bar.” He finishes and connects his lips with yours again, slipping his tongue into your mouth, tasting every spot. You moaned into the kiss, his words and made you so wet at your pussy, and feeling his cock jabbing at you, you want him so badly. You want him to take you, make you beg for release. You break away from the kiss.

“Maker, Mando, fuck me, please fuck me.” you beg as you look into the darkness of the blindfold. 

“Oh Red, you are so pretty when you beg.” His hand on your ass squeezes and his other hand travels down your abdomen, and he slides a finger into your wet folds. He coats them in your slick and then presses them to your clit. You are just a series of small moans. He starts circling his finger.

You are already so close to orgasming, his words had been such a turn on. And to think, you were worried he was second-guessing everything. You hadn’t known that he had actually been turned on since the casino.

“Mando, p-please,...fuck...I want you.” You manage to say.

“Fuck” He breathes out and then pulls his finger away and his hand on your ass slides down to your thigh and his other hand goes to your other thigh and he lifts you up hight, using the wall to help hold you up. You wrap your arms around his neck. You can feel his tip prodding at your pussy.

He reaches down and lines up with your entrance and thrusts in. You both moan at the feeling. You love the feeling of his cock filling you. You kiss him as he starts to rock his hips. He moans into your mouth and you take your chance to slip your tongue into his mouth, wrestling with his tongue. 

He sets a steady pace with his hips pressing into you. He breaks the kiss and moves his mouth to your chest. You gasp and entangle your fingers into his wet hair. He moves his mouth around, sucking on the skin, surely leaving little bruises all over. If this started because another man had placed a hand on you, he was marking you as way to show that you are his.

He then hooks his arms under your thighs to get better access with his his and change the angle, hitting that sweet spot inside you. You cry out, your orgasm is right at the brink, your legs are shaking. Mando must notice because he picks up the pace with his hips making your orgasm crash down on you.

“Mando, mando, mando…” You whimper as you ride out your high and tighten your walls around him while he fucks you. 

“I...love hearing you say that…” He says breathless. His pace starts to become erratic. 

“Fuck, Red.” 

You kiss him and suck his bottom lip into your mouth as he thrusts hard a few more times, then goes as deep as he can and stills, moaning into your mouth. He breaks away from your mouth and just rests his head into the crook of your neck, catching his breath. You play with his wet hair, stroking the back of his neck. 

Moments later, he pulls out of you and slowly lowers you down, letting you get your balance before letting go. 

You feel his hand come and rest on your cheek “I don’t want anyone else to ever touch you like this.” He says. 

“Neither do I.”

  
  
  



	7. The Chase

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You slowly advance your grip up the rope. You look up and see the bounty has pulled out his blaster and is aiming it at you. You try to find something to use to your advantage. 
> 
> Suddenly a blaster bolt comes from behind you nearly missing him, and the bounty ducks down, affecting his aim at you. You look back and see Mando with his blaster up still steering the speeder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello you lovely readers and mando simps! Thanks for the support on this story, I love getting feedback! I hope you enjoy this next chapter.

When you wake up the next morning, you wake up before Mando, you can feel the warmth of his body against your back and his calloused hand softly resting on your abdomen. You lay there, taking in the sense of him sleeping peacefully beside you, listening to his slow even breaths. 

Last night he took you in the shower, you could still feel his lips against your ear, saying how he wanted to kill the man that had touched you, that the mind trick had turned him on, and that he wanted to be the only person to touch you. Was he the only person that had ever touched you? No. Before you were captured by the Empire, you and Cal had confessed your feelings for each other and shared a night together. It was special, you held it dear to your heart, like you held him to your heart. But things are different now, Cal is gone. And you can sense your feelings for the mandalorian laying next to you grow every day. 

* * *

  
  


_It had been 3 years since you had reunited on Kashyyyk. After Cal had finished his mission looking for the Holocron with the names of force-sensitive children, he came back to Kashyyyk and asked you to join him and his crew. You spoke with Chief Tarful and he assured you they would be okay without you, but that you always had a safe place on Kashyyyk should you ever be in trouble. You hugged Chief Tarful, you were going to miss the Wookies, you had grown so fond of them._

_You and Cal were in hyperspace on your way to Felucia. The Rebel alliance asked you to scout the Imperial base there._

_You turn in the pilot’s chair. “Alright, we will be there in a few hours.”_

_“Great, I’m glad it’s just us. I needed some time away from Greez. I love the guy, but sometimes he can be a little much.” He lets out a soft chuckle._

_“I totally agree, Greez likes to talk.” You laugh._

_“I’ve always loved your laugh” He blurts before he has even realized what he was saying._

_“I...thanks” You say, feeling your cheeks flush. You were in love with him, maybe you were as a child, you weren’t sure, but what you were sure of was that you are now._

_“I uh, I’m going to go check out that electrical problem.” You say, there was a light flickering in the back of the ships hull. You stand up and make your way back there, you open the wiring cabinet and start messing around._

_“I’m in love with you” Cal yells, standing up from his chair and turning to you. You stop moving your hands on the wires, you are just frozen there. You turn your head to him and open your mouth._

_“And before you say anything I need to say everything I have to say first.” He starts “I liked you when we were at the temple together, that’s why the first time I walked over to you to help you, I already knew you were better than me at almost everything even though you were a year younger, but I wanted to be friends with you. When the Order fell and I heard what happened at the Temple,” he sighs “I thought you were dead. But then I found you on Kashyyyk and I was happier than I had been in a long time. I love you y/n, and I’m tired of pretending I don’t.”_

_You stare up at him. A piece of his orange hair had fallen into his face._

_“Please say something so I don’t feel like an idiot.” he says much quieter than his confession._

_“You lean onto your toes, grab the front of his poncho and press your lips to his and stay like that for a minute, just kissing each other. You finally pull away and say with a smile “you’re still an idiot.”_

* * *

  
  


There is enough light coming in through the window for you to see now that it is morning. You feel Mando shift behind you and yawn.

He moves his head closer to yours and hums “Good morning” he says in a low raspy voice and he places a kiss to the side of your head. And you can feel his cock start to harden against your ass.

You smile “good morning to you” and grind your hips back against him. He groans as you do.

“Fuck y/n” He grunts back then shifts his hips back so they aren’t against yours anymore. “As much as I want to, we need to get ready and get moving. We have a bounty to catch.” 

You sigh “You’re right.”

You feel him sit up and then stand up off the bed, you hear him grabbing his clothes and putting them on. You stay the way you are facing until you know it’s okay.

Eventually he says in a modulated voice “You can turn around now.” 

You roll over on the bed and see him standing there, tall, dressed, but no armor. He grabs his armor and starts putting it on. You sit up and walk to the fresher as you had left your clothes in there. Upon looking in the mirror you see all the marks on your chest and the one on your neck that had been left there from last night. Mando really did a number on you. The only one you wouldn’t be able to hide with your shirt is the one on your neck, you don’t care much, it actually makes you _happy_ that people will see you with him and know you are _with_ him. You put on your clothes from the last few days. You really need to buy some more clothes. You wrap the holster around your waist and place the blaster in it. Then you hook your saber on your belt and walk out.

Mando now has the rest of his beskar on and is giving Grogu some food, which he takes happily. 

“No, chew it, you are going to choke one of these days.” Mando says to him. Grogu just looks at him, his ears twitching up, as he shoves the food in his hands into his mouth and swallows. His dad lets out a frustrated sigh. 

“He understands me, right?” He asks looking up at you. 

You nod. “He does, but he is a kid, and they don’t like to listen all of the time.” 

He jerks his head back at the baby “Chew it” he says as he points a gloved finger at him. 

You roll your eyes. “If you are done scolding the baby, we can get moving.” 

He nods and picks Grogu up to put him in the crib. You leave with them, and go around the city asking about the bounty. One person’s information leads you to a shop. 

You arrive at the shop with Mando and walk in, Mando puts his hand on the small of your back. 

“I’m going to talk to the owner” he says plainly. His hand leaves your back and Mando goes over to the man at the back of the shop and speaks with him. You walk around with Grogu in his capsule, looking at the goods. 

“A beautiful woman like you should be sporting some jewelry.” The women behind the counter chimes in. “How is it your husband over there hasn’t gotten you any jewelry to wear?” She asks.

“What? Oh no, he’s not my husband” you stammer out. 

She hums and looks at you, more at your neck. The bruise there is very visible. “Lover then, whatever you call it. I wasn’t born yesterday dear. I saw how his hand was on your lower back when you walked in.” She says, purposefully not saying anything about the bruise. It got you thinking though, what _are_ you and Mando? Where you just fucking each other? No, there were some feelings, he told you that he cared. Were you dating? No, that makes you sound like kids. You don’t know what exactly you and Mando are, but it isn’t just fucking. 

You glance at the necklaces then look back at the woman “I-I...I’m not the jewelry type, and he _definitely_ isn’t the jewelry buying type.” 

“Every man is the jewelry buying type when it comes to a woman” she smiles at you. 

You smile slightly to the woman. “Thank you, but I don’t think that will be happening.” You walk away and leave the shop and wait for Mando outside.

Moments later Mando emerges from the shop “the owner said the bounty came here yesterday and he heard him say something about skipping over to the next city.” 

“Let’s get to the speeder then.” You look up at him and say. You won’t ever say a word to him about the conversation you had with the woman. You aren’t going to ask what this is between you two. It doesn’t need a label to be real. And you are not ever going to ask him to buy you anything. 

* * *

  
  
  


The next city wasn’t terribly far, only 30 minutes by speeder. You pull up to a place to park the speeder. 

“There!” Mando calls out.

The bounty is also in the speeder lot, he looks over and sees Mando, his eyes go wide and he jumps into his speeder and takes off into the city.

Instinctually you engage in a chase after him. Mando pulls out his blaster and starts shooting at the speeder in front of you. The bounty keeps making sharp turns through the city. You’ll never catch him like this. 

“Take the controls!” You yell to the man in beskar next to you as you start to stand up. 

“What are you doing?!” He turns to you while takes the controls. 

“Catching you a bounty.” You wink at him and force jump to a fire escape of a passing building. You keep force jumping your way higher until you are on the rooftops. You start running across the rooftops following Mando and the bounty on the streets. The bounty makes another tight corner turn on his speeder. You cut across the roof you are on and jump off sprawling out your arms and legs to fall evenly, then before you make impact with the bounty’s speeder you turn yourself upright to land on your feet. 

The bounty, a species that has an extra set of arms, turns and looks at you and starts trying to fight you while keeping his speeder steady. You fight him, dodging most of his attacks, a few of them hitting you. You are also getting some punches in. You get behind him and put him in a hold, one of his extra arms, however, gets free and connects with your face. The hit makes you stumble back and fall over his supplies in the back, sliding off the back of the speeder. One of the supplies though had been a tow rope. You grip it quickly with both hands. Your hips and legs are dragging on the ground as you hold onto the rope connected to his speeder. 

You slowly advance your grip up the rope. You look up and see the bounty has pulled out his blaster and is aiming it at you. You try to find something to use to your advantage. 

Suddenly a blaster bolt comes from behind you nearly missing him, and the bounty ducks down, affecting his aim at you. You look back and see Mando with his blaster up still steering the speeder. 

You continue your advance on the rope until you can finally grab onto the back of the speeder, and push off of the back bumper with your arms and jump over the bounty. You land on the front of the speeder, and you give a smirk and shrug when the bounty is staring at you shocked. You kick him off the speeder and he rolls into the street.

The speeder starts to lose control, heading for a wall. You jump off, landing and skidding back knelt on one foot and your knee on the other leg, using a hand for balance. 

The speeder crashes into the wall, and you look over. Mando has the bounty handcuffed. You stand and walk over. He tilts his helmet down at you. 

“That was...impressive.” He states. “We should go though, that drew a lot of attention.”

He was right, people in the city were staring at you. 

“Let’s get back to the Crest.” you say in agreement.

  
  
  
  


  
  



	8. Naturally

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Can I ask you something?” His wonderful, unmodulated voice says.
> 
> You feel the vibrations from his chest, you hum “of course, what is it?”
> 
> “How did the Empire capture you?” He cautiously asks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello you lovely readers and Mando simps! This chapter has more Cal flashback, and some fluff at the end <3

You finally get back to the ship, it’s dark out. Mando lowers the ramp and pushes the tied up bounty up it. The bounty had been quiet the whole ride back on the speeder. He was looking at you while walking up the ramp of the Razor Crest. 

“You are one of those old warriors, a Jedi. It’s the only way you could have pulled those stunts. I bet the Empire would love to hear about you.” He snarls at you. You freeze where you are, thinking about when you were captured, and then the bounty is quickly heeling over in pain as Mando punches his fist into the bounty’s gut.

“Keep moving” he shoves him forward toward the carbonite chamber. 

“And she is also your whore isn’t she?” the man spits at Mando. Mando puts his hand on the four armed species and shoves him to the chamber and presses the button and cool carbonite sprays out from above and then stops. You look at the man frozen in the material, then turn your head away and go and sit on a crate. Your pants are torn up in the front from dragging on the ground when you were holding onto the rope. You could also feel your right cheek was starting to bruise from when he hand knocked you off the speeder. 

““What you did back there, it was impressive. You are a good fighter.” Mando says while closing the ramp, breaking the silence, trying to change the subject from what the bounty said. “Running the rooftops was a smart idea.”

You smile, “Thanks, one of us had to catch him.” 

You can feel the glare he gives you under the helmet then shakes his head. Grogu climbs out of his capsule and waddles over to you, you scoop him into your lap.

“If he figured out though that you were a Jedi from that, chances are other people are thinking it too, and may have contacted the Empire.” His tone changing to have a more concerned sound. “We need to leave Corellia now.” 

* * *

  
  
  


You step out of the fresher and grab Mando’s towel. “Dank Farrick” you curse as you look at your clothes, you had forgotten that the pants were completely torn up in the front. You sigh and wrap the towel around yourself and open the fresher door. And walk over to your other set of dirty, but intact clothes.

Mando was sitting on a crate, cleaning his blaster when he looks up at you. “You don’t have any more clean clothes.” He didn’t say it as a question, more as an observation. 

“Well I have to wear something.” You reply.

“I wouldn’t complain if you didn’t” and you can hear the smirk on his face. You roll your eyes.

“It’s also cold in here.” you retort. 

Mando gets up and opens a cabinet by the sleeping chamber and pulls out a black pair of sweatpants and a black shirt. He walks back over to you and holds them out. “Here” he says with sincerity in his modulated voice. There’s a slight upturn on your lips as you take the clothes from him. You slip the pants on, still holding up the towel around yourself, though you don’t see Grogu anywhere, he must have gone to sleep while you were in the shower. You set the towel down and put the shirt over your head and pull it down. Mando and started taking his armor off while you dressed.

You lay down on the spot on the floor with the blanket and the pillow, you pause, there is now a  _ second _ pillow there. When had he moved the pillow from the sleeping nook to here? You smile at the thought of this being the regular thing, you and Mando sleeping on the floor of the hull together. 

You hear the last of the armor clank on the floor, leaving only his helmet. The light soon clicks off and you hear the now familiar sound of the helmet disengaging in the darkness. Moments later you feel Mando laying down behind you, helmetless and shirtless. You feel the warmth radiating from his body, you are still cold so you move closer to him and lay your head on his broad chest. You rest your hand on his abdomen right where his ribs end and you feel him relax under you, and close your eyes, taking the moment in. 

“Can I ask you something?” His wonderful, unmodulated voice says.

You feel the vibrations from his chest, you hum “of course, what is it?”

“How did the Empire capture you?” He cautiously asks.

You are taken back by the question, you just weren’t expecting it from him. 

“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.” He quickly adds.

“No, it’s...it’s alright.” You say. You take a breath then start your story. “Do you remember Cal? The friend I told you about that the connection kept me from turning to the dark-side?”

“Yes, I remember” he says softly.

“Well we weren’t just friends...we were going on a mission for the rebel alliance, and on our way we confessed our feelings for each other.” you say, feeling him take a deep breath “We got to an imperial base on Felucia, they were building more Star Destroyers there. Our mission was to plant charges and destroy the base.”

* * *

  
  
  


_ You just finished putting your shirt back on. Cal was buckling his belt. You go over and kiss his cheek, before going back up to the cockpit. The ship was about to leave hyperspace any moment. You turn on the transmission and plug in the imperial codes the Alliance had supplied you with. Cal came up and joined you in the cockpit and sat in the chair next to you.  _

_ “Coming out of hyperspace in three...two...one.” You count and the ship jolts and you see Felucia in front of you. There is a Star Destroyer hovering over the planet. You steer the ship toward the planet hoping the codes go through without complication.  _

_ “Transport, what is your business here?” You hear over the coms. Dank Farrik. You activate your end on the com “We are transporting imperial parts to the base.” You say, hoping they don’t question it further.  _

_ “Very well, proceed.” they say and you turn off your end of the coms, letting out a relieved sigh.  _

_ “Well looks like the mission is a go.” The orange haired man says next to you.  _

_ You look at him and smirk, “try to keep up, Kestis” and you bolt the ship forward to the planet, and land where the base can’t detect you.  _

  
  


_ You both grab your sabers and hook them onto your belts. You also grab a bag with some other supplies. Cal opens the ramp and you both descend. _

_ You trekked your way through the exotic wildlife of the planet until you see the perimeter of the base. You pull out the binocs from your bag and zoom on the base. You look around, you don’t see any Star Destroyers being built… you see massive weapons of all kinds. You tense up. _

_ “What is it?” Cal asks, sensing your shock. _

_ “This isn’t a Star destroyer manufacturing base” you breathe out, “it’s a weapons testing and manufacturing base.” You hand him the binocs and he looks at the base. _

_ “Great, multiple mass destruction weapons, a company of stormtroopers and two of us. What could go wrong?” He says sarcastically.  _

_ “As long as we stay unnoticed, we should be fine.” You respond.  _

_ You make your way down to the perimeter and find a spot where vegetation has grown enough that you can climb it. You both climb up the wall and jump down, and move to kneel behind some crates.  _

_ Okay, new plan is going to be to set charges around the weapons outside here, then meet back here and we’ll plant some inside.” He says to you. You nod and slowly and sneakily make your way around. Stormtroopers are all over the place. You use whatever you can for cover. You make it to the first stash of weapons and pull out a charge, and stick it to the underside of one. You make it to the next set of weapons and follow suit with the last one. _

_ Once you finish you make your way back to the rendezvous point. Cal is on his way back. A stormtrooper is in his route though. You hold out your hand and rattle some supplies a few feet away. The stormtrooper turns and approaches the supplies. Cal takes his chance and runs to the next set of cargo crates, until he finally gets back to you.  _

_ “Thanks” he breathes out. _

_ “No problem.” You smile, “let’s get inside and finish this.”  _

_ “The bay doors are open over there, I didn’t see anyone inside them.” he states and you nod.  _

_ You both wait for your chance when no troopers are looking and make your way to the bay doors, you following closely behind Cal. You make it around the corner of the building and into the bay.  _

_ “Okay, let’s set the charges in the power chamber and get out of here.” You say. You feel uneasy, something dark is here.  _

_ “Agreed.” Cal replies shortly.  _

_ You make your way to the halls to the power room, you enter, only to be greeted by Bil Valen, otherwise known as the sixth brother for the Inquisitors.  _

_ “I sensed you the moment you two arrived.” _

_ “Valen” You snarl at him. Your last encounter with him you barely were able to catch Cal’s hand as you jumped from a building roof to the Mantis.  _

_ “Y/n he has a beacon lit, we have to go before the entire imperial fleet is here.” Cal chimes in.  _

_ You look to Valen’s belt and there is a blinking beacon. Dank Farrik.  _

_ The sixth brother pulls out his saber and ignites it. Cal is grabbing at your arm, pulling you back. “Let’s go!”  _

_ You step back and turn around and start running with him, stormtroopers must have been alerted because there is blaster fire all around you. You grab your green saber and ignite it to deflect incoming fire. Cal ignites his orange blade to do the same. One trooper steps in front of you and you get up to him and spin over his back bringing up your blade as you land on the other side. You continue your way to the bay. _

_ You get to the bay, running to the opening. Valen is behind and there are more troopers following. You know that you both won’t make it off this planet without the ship getting shot down. When you and Cal get to the bay doors, you stop as Cal runs out and then you run to the side and shut the doors. There is an eye level window that spans across the door. _

_ Cal turns around and goes up to the glass and looks at you, “y/n, what are you doing?!” he yells frantically. _

_ “I can hold them off long enough for you to get off planet!” You yell back. _

_ “No! I’m not leaving without you!” he screams, fear in his eyes. _

_ “You have to.” You say, looking at him sadly with tears in your eyes. “I love you.” You say and turn around to face the sixth brother. _

_ “Y/n! No!” you hear him pound on the door with his fist. You glance back and he gives you a lost look with tears going down his cheeks, then runs off. _

_ He’s  _ **_safe._ ** _ You reignite your saber, looking at the Valen and the troopers, ready to accept your fate. _

  
  


* * *

  
  


“You sacrificed your own freedom for his.” The man with curly hair you were laying with on the floor of the Razor Crest. 

You nod on his chest. “I had to hold them off so he could escape. I hadn’t planned on them keeping me alive and torturing me to try and turn me into an inquisitor. But I would still make the same decision if I had to do it over again.” 

“You loved him” Mando says.

“I did.”

You both lay there in silence for a minute. Until you find the words to say, “I didn’t think I would ever...care about someone like that again, but...with you, I just  _ do.  _ Caring about you, Mando, just comes...naturally.” You admit to him.

He stays still and quiet. Then you feel his hand on your cheek, pushing your chin up, and he plants a hard, but sweet kiss on your lips. You move your lips with his, his hand finding yours that was resting on his stomach and intertwining his fingers with yours. He then breaks the kiss and you rest your head on his chest again. You feel the most safe you’ve ever felt being right here with him.

“Din.” he suddenly says into the darkness.

“What?” You question.

“My name, it’s Din.”

You feel a smile creep on your face, and feel your heart fill. 

“Din.” You say happily. 

  
  



	9. The Promise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Thank you, for bringing us here. It means a lot to me” you tell him and rest your head against his shoulder, looking at the water and the way the moonlight reflects off it. “I like that I get to see this side of you, not ‘Mando’ the seasoned bounty hunter everyone else knows you as, but ‘Din’ the sweet and thoughtful side,” you explain to him. 
> 
> The helmet slightly turns toward you. “You and the kid are the only ones that get this side of me, the only ones I want to see this side of me” he says, taking in your words. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello you lovely readers and Mando simps! This first half is mostly all smut, you're welcome ;) and the end has some really cute fluff!! <3
> 
> WARNING: mentioning of infertility

_Din._

The hardened, sometimes statue like Mandalorian finally told you his name. And it’s a perfect name. Something about Din just suits him. It’s short and to the point, much like he is, but the name also has something sweet about it. You always thought people’s names reflected their personality, and Din definitely suited Mando’s personality, at least to you. You see a side of him that you don’t think anyone has ever seen before. Sure, he is sweet with Grogu, but he isn’t... _vulnerable_ with him. He only allows that side to show around you.

_Din._

You are the first one to wake up in the morning, you roll over to face the man beside you in the darkness. You want to see his face. You want to know what color those curls are that you lace your fingers into. You want to know what color his eyes are. You want to know what he looks like when he smiles. You want to know what emotions look like on him. All you ever see is the dark T-visor.

_Din._

You hear his breathing hitch, you know he is waking up.

“Good morning...Din” You say. He hums and reaches his arms out to find you and pull you closer to him. You are against the front of his body, your face at the crook of his neck, his chin resting on top of your cheek.

“Good morning, Red” He says in a low sleepy voice that makes your stomach feel light.

You tilt your head up and kiss his lips softly. He brings a hand to your cheek as he starts to move his lips with yours. What started out as a soft, caring kiss was starting to turn into a hungry and lustful kiss as you both started to increase the intensity of the kiss. You both start grabbing for each other, you grab at back. He slides his hand under the shirt he had given you last night and holds onto your waist. You pull away from the kiss and kiss up his jawline, he lets out a soft moan. You feel the angle of his jaw when you get to hit, you pull your lips off his skin.

“Let me take care of you” you whisper in his ear and he lets out a desperate groan in response. You prop yourself up and connect your lips with his again, his tongue slipping into your mouth, trying to get every inch of you he can. You start to pull away, but he leans upward to try and hold onto the kiss. You place a hand on his chest to hold him down, making him fall from the kiss. Your lips find his neck, placing soft sweet kisses, he sighs from them. You then get to the hollow part where his neck meets his collarbone and suck the skin there, you want to leave your own mark on him this time, even though know one will see it, you’ll know it’s there.

Once you think you’ve done a good enough job to leave a nice bruise, you move your lips down his chest. He is taking deep breaths and you feel his hand trailing up and down your upper arm. 

You crawl in between his legs as your lips make their way to his abdomen. You place a kiss above his navel and then focus your attention to the bulge at his crotch. You palm him through his pants, feeling his straining erection. 

“Fuck” Din breathes out and groans.

You smile to the response from him. You increase the pressure slightly and he bucks his hips into your hand. You remove your hand and undo the button on his pants. He moves to help you remove them completely. 

His hard cock is now exposed. You wrap your hand around the base, but don’t move it. He whimpers.

“Tell me what you want” you say to mimic the times he made you tell him what you want.

His breathing has quickened, “Red, fuck...I want you to suck my cock.”

You smile and take him into your mouth as far as you can take him, and he moans and tries to buck his hips, but your other hand is holding his hips down. One of his hands comes down to the back of your head and entangles itself in your hair. 

You pull your head back up, dragging your tongue along the vein on the bottom, causing his breath to catch and the grip in your hair tighten. Your one hand is still wrapped at the base, holding him steady as you bring your lips to the tip and swirl your tongue, tasting the precum there. Then you hollow your cheeks and start steadily moving your head up and down, with your hand following your head, lightly twisting. 

“M-maker….so good” he grunts “the fucking mouth is perfect Red.” You hear his other hand grabbing at the blanket next to both of you. You hum in response and the elicits another moans from him, and you feel your own wetness forming in between your legs.

After a bit, you can tell by his sounds he is getting closer, but you are finished with him yet. You pull your mouth off him, and before he can say anything you dib your head down to take one of his balls into your mouth, sucking ever so slightly, then releasing him.

You move to remove the pants from your legs then crawl to straddle his hips and rub his cock in your folds coating him with the slick fluid there.

He puts his hands on your hips, massaging his thumbs into your skin. You lift yourself up, his hands supporting you, and grab him to position him at your entrance, then you lower your hips slowly, sinking down onto him. You clench around him and you both moan into the darkness of the hull. You sit there for a moment on his hips, him deep inside you, taking in the feeling of him. You place your hands on his shoulders and start to rock your hips on his in a circular forwards and backwards motion. 

He lets out a deep grunt and moves his hands from your hips to your ass and squeezes. You whimper, keeping your movements steady but picking up the pace.

“This feels, oh fuck, amazing, you feel amazing Red.” He says to you, giving your ass a light smack.

“Tell me how much you like it” you order.

His hands squeeze your ass again “I love the way your pussy feels around my cock, so...so wet….fuck….so tight.”

You smile and change your movements on him, stopping the circular roll and start to move up and down on his length, making you cry out and him grunt loudly.

“Fuck Red, I’m getting so close.” He breathes out in a pant.

“Me too, you feel so good Din” and almost as if hearing you say his name like that made him ravenous, he sits up, his arms wrapping around your back and flips you both over, keeping him inside you the whole time. He starts _pounding_ into you relentlessly. You cry out at the sensation as you hit your high, seeing white at the edges of your eyes, your hands on his back scratching into his skin. His breathing is erratic, along with the movement of his hips, and then he buries himself into you and goes rigid, filling you with his cum. 

Once his body finally relaxes over you, his breathing quick and panting, he leans his forehead on your cheek. Once you finally can form your own coherent thoughts, you move a hand to the back of his head and stroke his hair. He leans his face up and kisses you softly. 

He then raises his hips and you feel him slip out of you, and then his body rolls to the side, laying next to you.

“I think that is the hardest I have ever cum” he admits.

You laugh “Hardest you have ever come, _yet”_

* * *

  
  
  


The next bounty on Ord Mantell took Mando about 2 weeks to catch. You stayed on the ship with Grogu and worked on some Jedi training in that time. You also managed to clean the one set of clothes you had left.

Mando-- you still mostly referred to him as Mando when you weren’t alone-- just got back, lowering the ramp to the Crest, dragging a body. You assumed it was the bounty and guessed he must have put up a fight, Mando had mentioned he was worth more alive. 

He dragged the body up the ramp and put it in the carbonite chamber and clicked the button, leaving the body frozen from decay.

“You dragged him all the way here?” You ask.

“Speeder broke down about a mile back, dragged him the rest of the way.” The shiny armored man states, and he opens the weapons cabinet and starts putting his weapons away.

“You could have contacted me on the comlink, I could have just flown the ship to you. I do know how to pilot a ship.” You tell him cynically. 

He turns to you “I’ll keep that in mind next time.” He grabs your waist and pulls you to him. “I can’t wait to _fuck_ you later, two weeks is too long” comes out from the modulator. You widen your eyes and look over at Grogu sitting on a crate, levitating the small ball from the cockpit of the ship.

“There are young ears that are very much awake right now,” you tell him, but you lean in closer and whisper “I touched myself every night thinking about you, and all the things I was going to do to you when you got back.”

He groans under the helmet. You let out a chuckle and move away from him, back over to Grogu to encourage him levitating the ball with the force.

* * *

  
  
  


The next day you are in hyperspace, you climb up to the cockpit, a little sore from the night before. When Din said two weeks was too long, he meant it, he took you three times last night. Din was sitting in the pilot seat, with his feet up and the helmet was tilted back and….snoring. He was asleep. You can’t blame him, neither of you got much sleep last night. Grogu was sitting in the copilot’s seat, you pick him up and sit down, setting him on your lap. 

You play around with Grogu a bit to keep him entertained. You eventually hear a yawn come from the modulator and Mando is sitting up and putting his feet back on the ground. He turns and looks at you.

“How long have you been there? And why didn’t you wake me?” he questions.

“Maybe half an hour, and you looked peaceful. And I wanted to let you sleep after you had been hunting for two weeks, and also after last night, figured you needed the sleep.” You tell him, smirking when you mentioned last night.

“Well, thank you. I was thinking...the first time we..” he glances down to the baby in your lap, then tilts the helmet back up at you. “The first time we were together, you said it was safe. How do you know?”

You look away from him out at the stars blurring as you pass them and take a deep breath. You look down at Grogu then back up at him. 

“When I was captured by the Empire, when they wanted to make me an Inquisitor...they..” you sigh “they don’t want any of their female Inquisitors to be able to bear children, creating a connection they would put before the Empire. So they...hurt them, to make all the female Inquisitors barren.” You slide Grogu in your lap and lift up one side of your shirt and lower the waistband of your pants to show Din the scar from when they had stuck a blade so long into you, that it damaged your uterus that no baby would ever be able to grow in you. 

The T-visor glances down, staring for a moment, then back up at you. You lower your shirt and pull your waistband back up.

“I’m sorry that happened to you.” He finally says.

You shrug “it’s not like I ever planned on having children, but...to have the choice ripped away from you like that...it...it affects you emotionally.” 

He stares at you, staying quiet.

“So uh, what’s our next destination?” You ask to change the subject.

“Naboo” he says, turning in his chair to face the front again. 

“I’ve never been.” You admit. You had heard stories of Naboo and it’s beauty. “I’ve heard it’s the most beautiful place in the galaxy.” 

“It may be, it is nice.” he responds.

“How long do you have till you have to meet Karga back at Nevarro?” You ask, hoping that your next question will be doable.

“Three weeks. Why?” he answers.

“Do you think...we could take a day or two and just...enjoy the planet?” you ask, hoping for a positive answer.

The helmet turns slightly toward you. “I guess we could take a detour, I could use a bit of a break from the last hunt.”

You smile “thank you.”

* * *

  
  


You arrive at Naboo and Mando lands the ship by one of the lakes hidden in a forest. You look out the front of the ship in awe. The stories did not do this planet justice. It’s absolutely gorgeous. You climb down the ladder and open the ramp, not even waiting for it to fully lower before you are descending and jumping down into the tall grass. You feel the slight breeze on your face and close your eyes, feeling the force here. The force is at peace on this planet and it gives you a warm feeling. You open your eyes and look out over the water and looking at the sunset.

You turn to see Mando walking down the ramp and Grogu waddling behind. 

“This planet is wonderful, I’ve never seen one like it.” You say giving him the biggest smile. 

“I’m glad you like it.” he says and you can hear the smile he is giving back to you, no doubt that appeared from seeing you so happy. 

You pick up Grogu, “come on, lets go check out the water kiddo.” You make your way to the edge of the lake, and set Grogu down and you take off your boots and roll your pants up at the bottom. Grogu walks over to where the small waves are hitting the land and coos while splashing his hand in the water. You step into the water, feeling the cool water and sand. 

You figure out small games to play with Grogu that don’t involve him getting in the water since he wasn’t keen on getting his feet wet. Mando sits in the grass with his knees bent up and resting his arms on top of them, watching you two at the water. He has shed his armor, leaving the helmet on. You look over at him in the middle of playing with Grogu and give him a smile. 

The sun finally sets and there’s only moonlight. You grab your boots and pick up Grogu and walk back up to the grass. Grogu yawns and falls asleep in your arms. You set your boots down by Mando.

“I’ll be right back, he’s asleep already.” you say to him and he nods in acknowledgement. You walk up to the ship and ascend the ramp. You open the door to the nook and set Grogu in his hammock and then shut the door. 

You make your way back to Mando and sit beside him. 

“Thank you, for bringing us here. It means a lot to me” you tell him and rest your head against his shoulder, looking at the water and the way the moonlight reflects off it. “I like that I get to see this side of you, not ‘Mando’ the seasoned bounty hunter everyone else knows you as, but ‘Din’ the sweet and thoughtful side,” you explain to him. 

The helmet slightly turns toward you. “You and the kid are the only ones that get this side of me, the only ones I want to see this side of me” he says, taking in your words. 

You smile and look up at him, you wish you could kiss him right now, that you could just take the helmet off and kiss his soft lips and feel the bit of stubble he has on his face.

Din suddenly stands up, and offers an ungloved hand to you. You take his hand and he helps pull you to your feet. 

“Turn around.” he orders, but in a kind way. 

You oblige and turn around, facing away from him. You hear him fumbling with something then his arms are coming over the sides of your head and in between his two hands is a small silver chain with a silver eight pointed star hanging from it in the middle. The points going up, down, left and right are long, and the points in between them are shorter. You gasp when it lands around your neck and feel him connecting the chain in the back, you lift your hair to make it easier. He just placed a necklace around you. You turn around to face him.

“Din…”

“I heard you...you and that woman on Corellia in the shop. I had the hearing turned up on my helmet.” he says quietly. 

You look at him, “it’s beautiful, but you didn’t have to get me it.” 

“I wanted to,” he says “I’m not...great with words, I do better with actions.” He points to the necklace around you, “this is a promise to you, that I’ll always be there.”

You feel tears forming in your eyes, tears of happiness. You hug him, resting your body against his, and he puts his arms around you.

“And you were wrong,” he adds “the most beautiful place in the galaxy is wherever you are.”

  
  
  
  



	10. The Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You stay quiet for a second, “what if...what if you didn’t have to go in to get the bounty, what if he came out to you?”
> 
> He turns his head to you “and how would I manage that?”
> 
> “You wouldn’t, I would,” you say “a benefit is sure to be a formal event, there were ball gowns back in the clothing shop, I could find a way in, I wouldn’t be suspicious, just a woman in a dress at a party. I could coerce him to leave with me straight to you. If that doesn’t work, I’m sure a mind trick would.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello you lovely readers and mando simps. this chapter has some really cute fluff with smut. We all love a sweet Din. It also has some possessive Mando :)

You both walk back to the Crest after a little while longer of sitting outside and listening to the sounds of Naboo’s nature. 

Din closes the ramp and removes his boots where you had set yours down. Din walks over to the light, but before he can switch it off, you walk over and turn it off yourself, staring at him the whole time and him staring at you. You reach your hands up to the edge of his helmet in the darkness, you had never taken it off of him before, he had always been the one to do it. You watch for any sign that it isn’t okay for you to do this, but he doesn’t make a move to stop you. You slowly lift up on the helmet, hearing the hiss of it. 

When the helmet is high enough off his head, you set it down on the crate by your legs. Din standing still the entire time. You put your hands back on his cheeks, cradling his face, as you push up on your feet and kiss him gently. He moves his lips to fit your movements. This kiss isn’t lustful or rough, it’s soft and comforting. His hands find their place on your hips and rest there. You pull your mouth from his and pause. Then you feel him gently pick you up, and you wrap your legs around his waist. He walks over to your place on the floor.

He slowly kneels down and lowers you onto your back. You feel your head hit a pillow. He sits back and takes his shirt off, you sit up to pull yours off. You feel his hand caress your cheek, rubbing his thumb across it as his lips find yours again. This one is more needy than before but still sweet. He gently pushes you back to lay down again, leaning over you. You move your lips together perfectly. He takes both of your hands in his and intertwines your fingers in both, he makes your arms bend at the elbow and your hands down to rest next to either side of your head.

He moves his lips from yours, and down to your neck. Still not roughly kissing or sucking, just tender and soft ones. 

You whimper under him quietly.

He hushes you. Not in a silencing kind of way, but in a comforting way. You aren’t sure what he is doing, this isn’t how Mando is....no... _ this is Din. _

He moves his lips down your neck to your chest, he places a soft kiss on each breast, nothing more. He moves his lips further down your abdomen, planting soft kisses all over you. You feel his hands leave yours by your head and land on your hips. He pulls your waistband down slightly, and moves his lips to the scar you had shown him earlier. He stays there, placing soft sweet kisses there. That’s when you realized what he was doing. He wasn’t fucking you, he was making love to you. 

_ Din _ was making love to you. 

He kept planting tender kisses around that spot, rubbing soft circles with his thumb of his hand that was there on your hip. You let out a staggered breath and tears form in your eyes from how considerate, how thoughtful, how  _ loving _ this was of him. 

Din heard your shaky breath, stopping and sitting back. “I-I’m sorry….is this too much? I was trying to...I didn’t mean to upset you,” he says sounding concerned he did something wrong.

You sit up and rest your hands on the sides of his neck, your fingers touch the curls of hair in the back of his neck, some tears slipping down your cheeks. 

“No, no it’s not that. What you are doing is perfect, you’re perfect Din.” you say while rubbing your thumbs on his neck, and you lean forward and kiss him. You’re certain he can feel the tear on your cheeks.

This time it is you that makes the kiss needing. Needing for him, needing for his laugh, sighs, words, touch, everything about him that makes him  _ Din _ . 

You lean yourself back, pulling him with you, keeping your lips connected. You slide your pants the rest of the way off and Din follows suit sliding his off above you. His hand finds your heat, his fingers pressing against your clit and rubbing circles. You moan in his mouth. He is still actively being sweet with all of his movements. He replaces his fingers with his thumb and his fingers trail back through your wetness to your entrance. He slowly inserts one finger into you. You gasp, breaking away from his mouth. He takes his chances and moves his mouth to your ear, softly sucking on the lobe. He starts moving his finger inside you whilst circling his thumb on your sensitive spot. 

“I want to take care of you, I want to be what you need” He says into your ear “when you’re happy, when you’re sad, when you’re angry, and when you’re scared. I’ll be there for you, always.”

You register the words, the promise he made to you outside, he’s explaining more to what he meant. You grab the hair on the back of his head, and pull him to your lips again for a long, slow kiss. He slips a second finger in next to the first, you cry out into his mouth. He moves his fingers in and out, curling them. 

You break away from the kiss to moan “Din, please, I need you.”

He moves his fingers in and out a few more times then takes them out completely. You feel him sliding his hard cock against your folds to get him wet. Your legs shake from the sensation and your hands grip his shoulders. He then positions himself at your entrance, just letting the tip rest there. He cups one of your cheeks in his hands and kisses you as he thrusts his hips forward. You whimper into his mouth and he groans into yours. He stays still for a moment, focused on kissing you.

Then he begins to move his hips, rocking them against you. He is doing slow and hard thrusts. He breaks away from the kiss to catch his breath, still pulling out and thrusting back in. 

“You’re so perfect Red, everything about you is just perfect.” He breathes out. 

You wrap your legs around his waist, arching your back. He leans down and sucks softly on your neck. You grab his hair, moving your fingers around in it. 

He increases his speed and shifts his hips causing his thrusts to that spot inside you eliciting a cry from your lips. You’re legs are shaking with pleasure, you’re toes starting to curl.

“Din, I...I’m so close.” you say in a desperate moan.

“Cum for me, cum all over me.” He breathes against the skin of your neck. His words are enough to push you over the edge, feeling your orgasm hit you, tightening your walls around inside you.

“Din, Din, Din” is all you can say through your wave of ecstasy that had been induced by him. 

Your orgasm sent Din closer to his, the tightening of your walls sending pleasure through his cock up through his body. He can’t keep his rhythm, he wraps his arms around you, your legs still wrapped around his hips. He finds your mouth and kisses you hard as he groans and stills inside you, cumming all over in you. 

Once his orgasm finishes, you release your legs around him, and he lifts himself out of you. He pulls away from your kiss, leaning his forehead against yours. 

“Din,” you say while stroking his hair “ _ my  _ sweet Din.”

* * *

You stand in the fresher the next morning, taking in the events of last night, him giving you the eight-pointed star necklace that is around your neck now. You look at it in the mirror, the silver star on a silver chain, it was simple, but it matched Din. You think about what the necklace meant, the way he told you it was a promise, a promise that he would always be there. Then your mind goes back to when he...made love to you, and you know it was that because all of his motions and words were deliberate, slow, and sweet. The way he kissed his way down your body and stopped at the scar that made you barren and started planting sweet kisses over it, as if trying to make it better. Then his words...wanting to be the one you went to for anything, happy, sad, angry, scared...furthering his promise he had made. You stare at yourself in the mirror, still holding the star on your neck.

You were falling in love with the Mandalorian.

You were falling in love with Din. 

You were falling in love with him and you have never even seen his face.

You were falling in love with him and you think he was falling in love with you too.

You grab your clothes and get dressed. You open the fresher door, hearing it slide open. Din is already sporting all his armor, sitting with Grogu, they are eating some breakfast. Din was tilting his helmet up ever so slightly when he went to put food in his mouth, and you catch a glimpse, but look away to respect his creed. The small glimpse you got though, the tan skin with his soft pink lips, is burned into your memory. You turn back, his helmet is back down, you smile and walk over, stealing a piece of Din’s food. 

“Good morning, what’s the plan for today?” You ask, raising an eyebrow at the helmeted man. 

“There is a town not far from here, and you said you’ve been needing to buy new clothes, figured we could go there.”

You did need to buy clothes, the outfit you were wearing was the only one you had.

You sit next to Grogu, “I like that idea.”

* * *

  
  
  


The three of you finally get to the town, there are beautiful buildings, architecture you have never seen before, it must be specific to Naboo. The streets are busy with merchants, traders, and just normal people walking around. Some people stared at Mando and all his armor, he did stick out here. 

You spot a clothing shop and turn to him. “I’m going to go in there, I’ll find you and Grogu when I’m done.”

He nods and you walk into the shop. They have everything from tactical clothes to ballgowns. You make your way to the tactical clothing, it’s more fitting for your lifestyle with the Mandalorian. 

You eventually pick out a few pairs of pants and some shirts. You get more underwear than pants because Mando makes you go through those pretty fast. You then all grab some new boots and a heavy coat in case the bounty hunting life ever leads you to an ice planet. On your way to pay you see some shower soap and shampoo, as much as you love using Mando’s you should get your own. You grab some and then you go up to the merchant and pay with your own credits for the clothing and he places it all into bags. 

You leave the shop and walk around the streets, looking for your Mandalorian and green child. You see the reflection of his armor up ahead, he is sitting on a bench with the capsule next to him. You walk to him, when you get closer you realize the capsule is empty and look to where the visor is looking. You see Grogu playing with some other children. A smile finds its way to your face as you watch and sit next to the Mandalorian. Seeing Grogu get to play like a normal child makes you happy.

“Did you get what you needed?” the modulated voice asked.

“Yes, I got everything.” you reply.

“Good, I know where the bounty will be tomorrow night.” he states “I heard some townspeople talking, in the next big city over there is a benefit. The bounty is sure to be there since he is of the wealthy. I’ll just have to figure out a way to get in to get him.”

You stay quiet for a second, “what if...what if you didn’t have to go in to get the bounty, what if he came out to you?”

He turns his head to you “and how would I manage that?”

“You wouldn’t, I would,” you say “a benefit is sure to be a formal event, there were ball gowns back in the clothing shop, I could find a way in, I wouldn’t be suspicious, just a woman in a dress at a party. I could coerce him to leave with me straight to you. If that doesn’t work, I’m sure a mind trick would.” 

He stares at you, thinking over the plan you just told him. “You’d be flirting with him.”

You furrow your eyebrows. Was that all he was worried about? You flirting with another man? 

“Fake flirting,” you tell him.

“He wouldn’t know that though,” his gloved hand grabs your knee, you jump slightly at the sensation. “He’ll think that he will get to touch you like this” he says quietly, dragging his hand up your thigh slowly. You whimper slightly. You worry for a second, you were also in plain view in public.

“You know I would never allow him to.” You say back in a low voice, “I told you in the shower on Corellia, I only want you to touch me like this.” You place your hand on top of his and drag it up to the hollow spot on your pelvis where your thigh meets your crotch and let it rest there. 

He squeezes slightly “good, he is worth more alive. If he touched you like this I’ll kill him without a second thought.”

His words send shivers down your spine then he removes his hand. 

“You’ll need to get a dress” he says.

“I will”

  
  


* * *

  
  
  


Mando had flown the ship closer to the next city. You and Mando scouted where the benefit is going to be, and where you’ll bring the bounty out to him. You are in the fresher getting ready, you had bought a dress at the shop along with some make-up. The bounty probably sees beautiful women all the time, so you have to be able to stand out to him. You just finished your make-up and your hair. You slip the dress on. 

The dress was a sleek navy blue that hugged your body in the right places, bound to get the target’s attention. It had an outer layer of lace all over, and the back was low cut, ending just above your ass. The front all had a side slit starting high on your right thigh, and the torso had a deep and thin V that went in between your breasts exposing the skin there. You slip on the heels you had bought and look at yourself one more time in the mirror. You looked good, and you opted to keep the necklace on, honestly, you didn’t want to take it off,  _ ever _ . 

You step out of the fresher and into the hull, Mando is placing Grogu in his capsule, he turns his head and stands up, and just stares. He doesn’t say a word, he is just standing there like a statue. You walk over to him.

“How do I look?” you say but then he quickly grabs you and pushes you against the wall and presses himself against you, your breath fogging up the bottom of the visor because of how close he is, and all his armor against your body and his  _ hard cock  _ pressing into your thigh.

“You are going to have every man there staring at you looking like this,” he growls through the modulator. You smirk at the T-visor. 

“Well getting the bounty’s attention is the goal, right?” you breathe out.

“Yes, but not everyone else’s, they are all going to look at you, look at what’s mine.” He says sending shivers down your spine. 

“They can look, but they’ll never get to touch me like you do,” you respond while placing your palm on his chest plate to gently push him back, giving him a smile. You walk over and grab your lightsaber and kick up your leg that isn’t exposed by the dresses slit onto a crate. You grab some tabe and strap it to your calf. 

“You won’t need that, I’ll keep eyes on you the whole time with my rifle ready if the plan goes south.” he says protectively. 

* * *

_ You were laying in the infirmary, in pain from your broken leg. You felt stupid, you could have made that jump, you know you could have. You sigh. You hear the door open and look over. Master Kenobi. Dank farrik. Your future master is going to think you are weak.  _

_ He walks over, “that was foolish young one.”  _

_ “I know,” you sigh. “I’m sorry master.”  _

_ “You don’t need to try and prove anything, I already know your strength, you are particularly strong with the force. It radiates around you.” he says, taking a seat on the edge on the bed. “Recklessness will get you killed in a real battle.”  _

_ “Yes Master,” you say to acknowledge his words.  _

_ He pulls your lightsaber out from his cloak. “I found this near where you had jumped. Don’t ever lose it. If there is one thing you learn from me, let it be that your weapon is your life.”  _

_ You take your saber from him. “I’ll remember that, master.” _

* * *

  
  
  


“I always take it with me. A jedi’s weapon is a jedi’s life. I would never leave it anywhere.” You tell the man in armor. 

He nods, knowing that arguing with you would be pointless. 

You stand back up, with your saber taped to your calf, hidden by the floor length dress. 

You look at him. “Let’s go.” 

  
  


* * *

  
  
  


You get to the stairs of the amazing building the party is at, wealthy looking people passing by you to go up. You aren’t sure where Mando is, but somewhere that he will have a visual on you the entire time. The plan, get into the party, find the target, flirt with him enough to get him to follow you out to the balcony and down the stairs to the dark alley where Mando is going to meet you.

You walk up the stairs, getting to the doors, there is security checking invitations. You figured there would be. You walk up to one of the guards.

“Invitation?” He asks you.

You wave your hand at your side, “you don’t need to see my invitation.” you say in an innocent, but determined voice. 

“Yes, I do. I’m not to let anyone in without their invitation.” he responds. Dank farrick, tricks won’t work on him. 

“It’s okay, she’s with me.” A man’s voice says, coming up next to you. You turn your head, you recognize the face from Mando’s puck,  _ it’s the bounty. _ He holds out his invitation. “She’s my plus one.” 

“Very well, sir. Go on ahead.” the security guard says after looking at the invitation. 

“Thank you.” the bounty puts his hand on the small of your back and walks in with you. “Trying to get into a party without an invitation, never going to work.” He looks at you, looking you up and down. “But a stunning woman like you belongs at every party.” 

You hadn’t thought it could be this easy. 

You smile at him. “I lost it on my way to Naboo, I’m from Coruscant.” Not a complete lie. 

“Graten Krill” he holds out his hand for you to shake. 

You take his hand and shake it lightly. “Asila” you come up with a name, walking over to the bar with him.

“Can I get you something to drink?” he asks his hand going back to rest on the bare skin on the small of your back, and you know Mando is watching somewhere probably clenching his jaw at the sight of him touching you. You nod and tell the bartender that you’ll take a martini. Graten gets one as well.

You make small talk with him while you both sip your drinks, you are rusty at it but manage, Mando isn’t one for small talk. One you both hand finished your drinks, setting the empty glasses on the bar.

“So what does a man like me have to do, to get you to dance with him.” he asks.

“All you have to do is ask,” you wink at him. 

He smiles and holds out his hand, you take it and go over to the dance floor with him, placing your other on his shoulder. His other hand landing on your waist. You both dance for a while, talking some more. 

“...I notice how things have changed since the New Republic has taken over, just I notice your hand sliding down on my waist.” you look at him. 

He moves his hand back up, “sorry” he says. “I’d like to show you something, it’s back in a room down the hall over there.”

That’s not the plan. The plan is to get him outside and down to the alley. 

“Oh I don’t just run off with strange men” that was definitely a lie, you ran off with Mando back on Tatooine. 

“Trust me, you’ll want to see this.” Graten says, removing his hand from your waist, and walking, still holding on to your other hand. 

* * *

  
  
  


What are you doing? Mando watches you walk off with the bounty to a place he can’t see you from his spot on the roof of the building over. This wasn’t part of the plan. Watching the bounty put his hands all over you during the evening made him fuming with rage. He watches you disappear further into the build.

“Dank farrik” he says, and looks over and Grogu sitting next to him. He stands up.

“Come on, we’re going in.” 

* * *

  
  
  


Graten leads you down a hallway and into a dark room. Something isn’t right. This was definitely a mistake. His hand leaves yours in the darkness, and then you feel a blaster collide with the top of your head, blurring your vision and making you dizzy for a moment. Then there is a blaster pointed at your back. You feel the blood start to drip down your face. The lights turn on, there’s two men to your side. Graten standing in front of you with a blaster point at you. 

“Cuff her.” he orders, and one of the men to the side of you puts handcuffs on you...force dampening cuffs. 

You look at Graten. “What are you doing?”

“I saw how you waved your hand when you were trying to get past the guard. I do smuggling on the side for the Empire, I think they would be very interested in you.” He says. 

You stiffen. He works with the Empire. 

You glance to the sides of you. Both of the men have blasters, and so does Graten. Just because you can’t use the force, doesn’t mean you can’t fight still. You quickly turn, kicking your leg up and knocking the blaster out of the mans hand behind you, and dodging the incoming blaster fire from the other two men in the room. You turn around and let one of the blaster bolts hit your cuffs, breaking them apart, and ending the force dampener. You force lift the other man and throw him back into the wall. You then do a backwards flip to avoid the blaster fire from Graten, and kicking the other man in the face as you do. You go to reach for your lightsaber when the door bursts open and Mando emerges and shoots Graten in the leg, he falls on the ground, and Mando kicks the blaster from his hand.

“I had it handled.” You say to him. 

“How was I supposed to know? I couldn’t see you. You didn’t follow the plan.” He sounded mad.

You don’t want to have this argument right now. You look back at Graten. 

“You should know, going after a Jedi, you’ll need more than three people.” You say through your teeth at him. 

Mando ties his hands together and lifts him to his feet. “There’s a large bounty on you, let’s go.” 

You walk back, carrying Grogu, you have a pounding headache from the blaster hitting your head, and you dread the conversation you are going to have with Mando upon arriving back at the ship.


	11. Words

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You finally work up the courage to stare at the visor that is staring at you.
> 
> “I’m not weak” you say.
> 
> He tilts his helmet, staying quiet. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello you lovely readers and mando simps! My tiktok video edit for this chapter will be up tomorrow since tiktok won't let me edit anything right now cause they got pissy with my last edit for the fire meet gasoline clips that are in plenty of other tiktoks. Oh well. Enjoy this chapter! Your support means so much to me!

Mando had just finished freezing Graten in carbonite. You grabbed one of your new sets of clothes and made your way quickly to the fresher to avoid the argument. You look in the mirror and look at the gash on the crown of your head from when one of Graten’s goons hit you in the head. It was deep, but nothing serious. You turned on the water, letting it get warm while you stepped out of the dress. You step into the warm water, relaxing as the beads of water go down your body. 

You had been okay. You handled the situation. Sure, you went against the plan, but the outcome was the same. You still got the bounty, but you could feel the anger coming off of Mando the entire way back to the Crest. 

You sigh, knowing that you can’t make this shower last forever. You grab the shampoo you had bought, taking in the fruity smell, instead of the musky smell of Din’s soap and shampoo. 

You finish cleaning yourself and turn off the water and grab the towel. You step out and dry off, looking in the mirror, dreading the conversation waiting for you. You slip on your underwear, you had planned on wearing the lace ones you had bought as a surprise for Din, but opted for normal ones since nothing was probably happening tonight. You put your legs into the pants and pull them up, and then put your shirt on. 

Mando is leaning against the wall of the hull on the other side with his arms crossed, still fully armored in beskar. You decide to just ignore the stare of the T-visor that is burning into your skin. You walk over and kneel to fumble with your bags, Mando staying still like he is made of stone. 

You pack the dress away, noticing how Grogu is missing. Mando must have already put him in his hammock to sleep. You close your bag and then a gloved hand grabs your wrist from behind you. You stay still for a moment, taking a deep breath before turning your head and looking up at the helmet. 

You rip your wrist from his grip “I don’t want to hear it,” you state while standing up.

“You went against the plan.” He doesn’t yell, but says firmly.

“Yes, I did. But he didn’t seem like a real threat, and even so I was fine before you showed up. We would have had him here in carbonite either way.” You respond back harshly. Yeah they had hit you on the head and cuffed you. But you got yourself out of the situation, and you were about to grab your saber before Mando bursted through the door and shot Graten in the leg. 

“That doesn’t matter, Red! How was I supposed to know that? You left the party that had the large windows and went down a back hallway.” Now he is yelling. 

“I can handle myself,” you retort back.

“And what if it had been like the events on Coruscant? What if you didn’t have it handled?” He asks in a condescending tone.

You think back to the fight you got into with the men in the temple. The dioxis gas and how if Mando hadn’t shown up, you probably wouldn’t have made it out of there. But this was completely different. You had been fine. He has seen you fight, he knows what you are capable of, you are a Jedi afterall. 

You furrow your brow, now you are angry, “I can handle myself just as well as you can handle yourself! I’ve been in plenty of battles without you coming to the rescue, I was on my own for years before I came with you. And I didn’t need you coming to the rescue on this one! I’m not some delicate flower! I’m not weak! I’m a Jedi, which if you didn’t know, are also considered some of the greatest warriors in the galaxy just like Mandalorians!” You yell back at him, offended that he thinks you can’t protect yourself. 

You go over to the nook and press the button to slide open the door. Grogu sleeping peacefully in his hammock, you climb in and shut the door, hearing it slide shut. You hear a loud bang of metal out in the hull, he must have thrown something across the hull. You lay down in the small sleeping quarters, feeling tears swell in your eyes. Did he really think you were weak and couldn’t protect yourself? Did he think that because you allowed yourself to be captured by the Empire to insure your best friends safety? Did he see that as weakness? Did he see it as feebleness to have been tortured and mutilated by the Empire? 

Did he really think that little of your capability?

Did he really think that little of you?

* * *

  
  


You wake up the next morning to Grogu climbing onto your stomach. You grab him and sit up and smile at him. “Hey Groggy.” You look around the small nook, remembering you slept here instead of out in the hull with Mando. You back ached, the floor of the hull was more comfortable than this bed, if you could even call it that. You didn’t want to face Mando, you didn’t want to talk to him, not yet anyways. But you were hungry, you open the door, hearing the hiss of it sliding open. No Mando in the hull, he must be up in the cockpit. You had felt the ship take off from Naboo before you fell asleep. 

You step out, and go over to the cargo box that contained the rations. You grab Grogu one, and one for yourself, and you both sit there and eat in peace, eating your food. You notice one of Mando’s vambraces by the wall.

That must have been the bang you heard last night, he must have taken it off and thrown it at the wall. You knew you would have to face him again.

After you and Grogu eat you set him across from you and cross your legs. “Alright, let’s focus on the force.” You tell him and he closes his eyes to mediate. You do the same, but you levitate yourself off the floor, sending yourself into the force, seeking answers, seeking peace.

…….

You don’t know how much time has passed when you hear heavy footsteps landing on the hull of the floor from coming down the ladder behind you. 

You hear a modulated sigh, “can we...can we talk?”

You open your eyes, and turn your head slightly, still facing away from him. You sigh and look back at Grogu, tired from meditating, using the force was still so much work for his little body. You lower yourself onto the ground and pick him up and go and set him in the hammock and close the door. You turn to face Mando, not looking directly at the visor, and fiddling with the star necklace around your neck with one of your hands. You finally work up the courage to stare at the visor that is staring at you.

“I’m not _weak_ ” you say.

He tilts his helmet, staying quiet. 

“You may think I am, but I’m not. A weak person wouldn’t have been able to resist the Empires attempts to turn me to the dark-side. I caught that bounty on Corellia, and I would have gotten Graten on my own. So you can call me a lot of things, but don’t call me _weak_.” you let out a deep breath.

He straightens his head and steps over to you, his body inches away from yours. He reaches up his gloved hand and the back of his knuckles graze over your cheek.

“I never said you were. I don’t think you are,” he says through the modulator. “Do I think you are reckless and stupid? Yes. But I also think you are one of the _strongest_ people I know.” 

You give him a confused look, “then why don’t you think I could handle myself?” 

“It’s not that I don’t think you could...it’s…” he tried to find the words. Maker, he was so bad at this, expressing his emotions. It didn’t come easy to him like it did to you. He searches for what to say and how to say it, “it’s just me being _worried_ because...I _care_ about you. When I lost sight of you at the party, I didn’t know what could have been happening to you, I just knew I had to get to you.” 

Your confused expression softens, and you grab the sides of his shirt on his torso. 

“Din…” you let out.

“After what happened on Coruscant, I don’t want anything like that to happen again.” he says placing both gloved palms on your cheeks. “I was angry last night, but only because I had been worried.” _Scared_ was what he really meant, but he would never admit that.

You wrap your arms around his armored torso, turning your head and resting your face on his cold beskar chestplate. You feel his strong arms wrap around your back. 

And in that moment you wanted to say it. The words that have been in your lungs for so long, burning to be said. The words you felt inside. The words you felt for him.

“ _I love you.”_

  
  


* * *

  
  
  


You and Mando were arriving back at Nevarro to turn in the bounties. Mando wanted to stay a few days on Nevarro, then you would be heading to Tython. Placing Grogu on the seeing stone may help increase his abilities again. So many years of not using them to stay hidden from the empty has weakened his connection with the force. You explained this to Mando and even though he didn’t understand, he agreed. 

You sat in the copilot’s chair, one hand fiddling with the star around your neck. You had told him you loved him yesterday. He didn’t say it back, you hadn’t expected him to, he already struggles with the emotions he does show you. He didn’t respond to the words, you both ended the conversation and went about things like normal. It wasn’t awkward, it was nice to have it out there. You said it again to him, before you went to sleep and after he had fucked you last night. You had meant the words, even though you’ve never seen his face, you loved him. When you looked at him with the beskar helmet on, or kissed his soft lips in the darkness, you loved him. Seeing his face didn’t matter, him being Din did. 

Mando landed the ship just on the outskirts of the same town you had been to on Nevarro before. He stands up out of his chair and exits the cockpit down the ladder. You followed him, he picked up Grogu and placed him in the capsule. You grab your saber, placing it on your belt, and throwing your poncho over your head. You pressed the button for the ramp. Cara and Karga were waiting for you. You walk down the ramp with Mando and greet them.

“He hasn’t managed to piss you off yet?” Cara lets out a laugh, looking at you. 

“Oh believe me, he has, but I don’t scare easily.” You say smiling back at her. 

“I have the bounties, all in carbonite. Had to kill one of them.” Mando says to Karga through his modulator. 

“I figured, that one has killed some guild members.” Karga responds, “also I can have some of my guys fix up the Crest after they get the bounties, the thing still looks like a rust bucket.”

Mando lets out a chuckle. You all make your way to the Cantina, and sit at a booth with them, seating yourself next to Mando.Karga gets the credits out and slides them across the table to him. Mando looks at them and then gives a portion of them to you.

“What are you doing?” you ask him with a confused look. 

“You helped me catch two of the bounties, this is your share.” he voices. Cara and Karga both look between you and Mando, then at each other, raising an eyebrow.

“Mando, they were your bounties.” you argue. 

“Just take the credits, Red. You deserve them.” he says with a finalizing voice. You don’t argue further, grabbing the credits he had slid over to you and putting them in your pocket. 

“Well if you are going to be staying a few days, let’s get the kid back to the school, so he can be a normal child for a bit.” Cara chimes in.

“I’ll come with you,” you say to Cara, so that Mando and Karga can discuss any business they need to. You walk out with Cara, heading toward the school she had mentioned. “I can see he cares about you.” she says.

“Oh, I...I..” you stammer out, unknowing what to say, you aren’t sure how public Mando wants this thing between you two to be.

Cara laughs, “don’t worry, you don’t need to tell me anything. I’m just glad he has someone. He needs someone.” 

You give her a small smile. 

  
  



	12. Echo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I think...I think I just sensed a force echo from you, a past memory. I’ve never been able to do it before.” You could feel how upset he was, and how it was turning to anger. “I didn’t mean to Din, it just happened,” you say try to mend his anger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello you lovely readers and Mando simps! Thank you so much for the support on this story! real angst is about to start soon!

You watched Grogu interact with the other kids in the school, getting to see him be normal for a bit made a big smile appear on your face. The kids love him, and his size, along with his large ears. You are standing in the doorway, you look behind you and see Mando has left the Cantina with Karga and is heading toward Cara’s office. You go over as well, meeting them at the door. 

“Gideon is still searching for the kid, Mando.” You hear Karga finish. You freeze, you haven’t heard that name in so long. The name of one of the men that tortured you in other ways than Valen, or Vader. Gideon, alongside Thrawn, used you for experiments.

“Wait...Gideon? As in Moff Gideon?” You question.

Both he and Mando turn and look at you. “Perhaps we better talk inside.” Karga says glancing at Mando. You all walk inside of Cara’s office. 

Mando turns his helmet visor to you, asking a question he thinks he already knows the answer to. “How do you know Moff Gideon?” 

You stare at him for a moment, glancing at Karga and Cara, then back at Mando, “I-I... he was one of the people that tortured me during my time with the Empire.” It was the truth, not the whole truth. You didn’t know if Mando could tell that there was more than you were letting on. It was so difficult to gage his thoughts with a helmet covering his face. “If he wants Grogu, it’s nothing good.” You add while trying to push back your own memories of Gideon’s and Thrawn’s torture.

“There’s a chance he may know about you as well.” Cara states, “a Jedi travelling with a Mandalorian isn’t exactly subtle.”

Mando looks at you then at Cara, “I won’t let anything happen to her or the kid,” he looks back at you, “I promise.”

You give him a small smile, you turn your attention to Cara. “We’ll be careful, we are spending a few days here anyhow, before leaving for Tython.

“What’s on Tython?” Karga cuts in. 

“An ancient force relic. Grogu is struggling with his connection to the force, small things take too much energy from him, he needs to reconnect to strengthen his bond.” You explain the need to go to Tython to him, and he nods, somewhat understanding, but still confused by the force.

“I’ve found it’s easier to just nod to anything about their magic,” Mando tells him with a slight laugh and you glare at him.

Karga lets out a bellowing laugh, “you are already learning how to avoid arguments with a woman, Mando.” He pats Mando’s back and walks out.

You roll your eyes and Mando gives you a little shoulder shrug.

“Well, while you are in town, if you need anything, let me know.” Cara tells you and Mando. “Thanks Cara,” he responds and walks out with you following him.

You walk back to the ship, you had questioned about Grogu, but Mando assured you that he was safe in the school with the two of you only being a couple hundred feet away. You make your way up the ramp and into the hull and sit on a crate, while Mando closes the ramp. 

“What weren’t you saying about Gideon?” comes out of the modulator immediately.

“What do you mean? He tortured me,” you try to avoid the real question.

Mando stands still there, unsure how to ask the question without sounding like an insensitive asshole. He wants to know how Gideon tortured you. Was it so he would have more reason to hate the imperial bastard? Maybe. Or was it so that he could know what Gideon put you through and how it affected you. Maybe. 

Maybe both. 

He sighs, “you don’t have to talk about it, I don’t know what the Empire did to you, but if it’s too hard to talk about, I understand.”

You give him a surprised look. You had been sure he was going to pry more, but relieved that he didn’t. You stand up, grabbing both of his gloved hands at his sides with yours. “Thank you,” is all you say, and then one of your hands leaves his and rests on his pants over his crotch, you press lightly, and you hear his breath hitch in the modulator. 

“The kid isn’t here, we can be as loud as we want.” you say and bite the side of your lower lip. Mando quickly starts removing his armor, causing you to laugh. You undo his belt, and you manage to slide your hand under his waistband and take him in your hand why he fumbles with his armor and lets out a shuddered groan. You start moving your hand, feeling him start to harden under your touch. He finally gets the last of his armor, his chestplate off and moves, pushing you back into the wall by the light switch and grinding against your hand and your thigh, seeking as much friction as he can.

He hits the light and then quickly removes his helmet, dropping it on the ground. His hands then go to the sides of your head and pull you to him and his mouth is on yours, desperate and needy. You mouth your mouth with his, letting his tongue explore your mouth, meanwhile, you are still stroking him in his pants while he grinds against your thigh. 

He pulls away from the kiss. “Over on the floor, take off your clothes, now, and lay on your stomach,” he orders. Mando likes having control during sex, and it was a turn on for you. You pull your hand out from his pants and do as you were told. You walk over to where the blankets are on the floor, quickly you undo your boots and pull them off. you pull your poncho off over your head then your shirt over your head, tossing it on the ground, then you take your saber off your belt and set it down. You undo your belt and slide your pants down your thighs and calves, then step out of them, leaving you only in the lace panties you had bought on Naboo. Din had yet to feel them. You lay down on your stomach, and wait.

Eventually you hear Din make his way over to you andrest his body on top of yours, he was naked now too, his hard cock was pressing against your ass.

“That’s a good girl, did just as I said.” he breathes into your ear, and you whimper. His lips are on your shoulder, kissing and sucking. One of his hands trails down your body, glossing over your hips, and stills at the feeling of the lace. It then moves along the lace that follows the curve of your asscheek. “Did you get these just for me?” he growls. 

You nod, “yes, just for you,” you let out while trying to push your ass up against his hardness, your own wetness seeking him.

“Now what was that about being able to be as loud as we want?” he says in a low tone, and the next thing you know his hand had lifted from your ass and came back down smacking it. You cry out so loud it echoes in the hull. 

Din hums, “that’s a good girl.” You feel his body leave yours, and his hands on your hips, pulling them up into the air so your ass is up and presented to him. Another smack on your ass, making you yell. “Maker, you look good like this,” he says, then massages the cheek he just smacked. 

“I want to hear you scream while the kid isn’t here, do you understand?” he asks in a demanding tone. You moan from feeling so turned on by him right now. Then another smack on your ass, “I said, do you understand?” 

You squeal to the impact, “yes, yes, Din, I understand.”

“Good girl,” he breaths and then you feel him pulling down your lace panties _with his teeth_. He drags them down your ass, down your thighs, you help him by lifting your knees so he can get them down the rest of your legs. Then once they are off, a finger suddenly slips into you. You moan at the intrusion. He moves his finger in you, curling it and getting breathless moans from you.

He slips a second finger in and slaps your ass with the other hand, making you holler out, “fuck, Din!” 

“There’s the sounds I’m looking for.” You can hear the satisfied expression on his face. His fingers leave you and rub on your clit back and forth quickly. You feel his teeth biting where your back and ass meet. You groan loudly. 

“Please Din, please, I want you, I want you so badly. Please fuck me.” you beg, knowing he loves it when you do. 

“Fuck,” one of his hands goes to your midback, and you hear him shift behind you. The tip of his cock hits your entrance. He glides it along your pussy a few times, coating it and teasing you. Once coated, he puts his cock back at your entrance and just pushes the tip in to frustrate you.

“Dank Farrik, Din. Fuck me already,” you whine while trying to move your hips back onto him, but his hands are on your hips, stopping you.

Din was loving this, seeing you so vexed by him. “Patience, Red.” He runs one hand up the middle of your back, the other staying on your hip, and then he thrusts himself all the way in so that his hips are flushed with your ass. You yell out at the impact, and tense around him. Din lets out a heavy groan behind you, once he collects himself, he starts rocking his hips in and out forcefully, the grip on your hip pressing hard. You rock your own hips back with every thrust to meet him, increasing the pleasure both of you are feeling. 

You are letting out a series of loud moans, and he is letting out breathy grunts. His hand on your back then pushes down on you, making you collapse your chest onto the blankets, your turn your head to the side so your cheek is resting on the floor. This changes the angle just enough for him to hit the right spot in you. 

You cry out his name, “fuck Din! Fuck, you feel so good!” Your own orgasm is approaching you, you feel your legs start to shake. Your breathing turns to pants “I-I’m so close, Din.”

He then bends at his hips, his front against your back and the hand that had been on your back is now wrapping around your abdomen to keep you against him. The hand on your hip moves to the front of your heat and rubs circles into your clit. His hips increasing their pace.

He groans into your ear, “I want to feel you cum, don’t hold anything back,” and then nipped at the back of your shoulder.

Maker, he made the pit of pleasure building inside you increase with everything he was doing. Legs shaking, and toes curling as he railed himself into you, and his fingers worked your sensitive nub, your climax exploded in your, screaming his name as it did.

Hearing you yell his name into the dark hull sent pleasure through his body as he felt your entire body go rigid and your walls tighten around him, making his own wave of pleasure crash over him and stills inside you as his cum filled you. 

He stays over you, his arm still around your abdomen holding you against him, as his forehead against your shoulder blade as you both recollect your thoughts in the darkness. He lifts his head and places soft kisses on the back of your shoulders before his arm releases around you as he lifts himself back up and pulls out of you. He moves to lay beside you. You reach out your hand and place it on his cheek, your fingers in the edge of his hair, you wish you knew what color his hair is, what color his eyes are, but you don’t know if those questions would be against his clan’s creed. You love him, and though you may not like his creed, you know it is important to him and you respect that. 

Your fingertips move around in his sweaty hair around his ear as your thumb gently rubs back and forth on his sweaty cheek. 

“I like hearing you scream my name,” he states.

“I know you do.” You smile and find his lips for a soft passionate kiss and then pull away, “I love you.” you say, and you feel him relax against your hand.

* * *

  
  


You had retrieved Grogu from the school, bathed and fed him before putting him to sleep in his hammock and shutting the door. Mando was already laying down, with his helmet on, you walk over and turn off the light, and find your way over to him, hearing him talk the helmet off. You lay down beside him, he moves to put and arm around your waist, spooning you. He kisses the top of your shoulder.

“Goodnight, Red,” he whispers. 

“Goodnight, Din,” you whisper back, relaxing into his hold. 

…..

In the morning, you hear Din shifting next to you, knowing he must be awake. You roll over towards him, half a sleep, and put a hand softly on his jaw and then suddenly you see a vision before you.

  
  


_You see blaster fire all around you, coming from separatist droids during the Clone Wars. There’s people running for their lives. You see a couple, a man and a woman running, the man carrying a child of about 7 years old, with a look of terror on his face. The family stops at a storm cellar, and the man lowers the child onto the ground, his mother hugs him. The father opens the cellar and then looks at the boy, gives him a kiss on his head and then ushers the boy into the cellar. Brown hair, tan skin, and scared brown eyes looking up at the man, reaching up at him. There's tears in his eyes as he closes the doors to the storm cellar._

_Then there is an explosion just outside the doors. The child jumps and sitting in the dark, scared. Moments later the doors open, a droid is there, aiming at the brown-eyed boy. The boy closes his eyes, knowing of what is about to happen. Then the droid is shot down, a Mandalorian is there, and he lifts the child from the cellar, carrying him. Outside there are other Mandalorians, shooting at the droids. The one holding the child takes off with his jetpack, the child holds onto him, scared of falling._

_The child was saved by the Mandalorians._

_Din was saved._

  
  


The vision ends and you take a deep breath, and you hear the man laying next to you do the same, but his breaths are more staggered coming out. He quickly sits up in the dark. 

“What was that?” he asks, sounding upset.

“I-I…” had you just sensed a force echo from him? Cal had tried to teach you how to sense echoes, but you had never been able to do it, you didn’t even know you could sense echoes from a person. Had Din seen the vision too? The vision of the awful memory?

“I think...I think I just sensed a force echo from you, a past memory. I’ve never been able to do it before.” You could feel how upset he was, and how it was turning to anger. “I didn’t mean to Din, it just happened,” you say trying to mend his anger.

“Stay the fuck out of my head.” he barks and then gets up, going to the fresher. You mumble out an ‘I’m sorry’ before he shuts the door.

  
  



	13. Tython

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Time’s up kid, we gotta get out of here.” the man in armor says while walking up to the blue field “Wait, Mando!” you try to stop him, but he had already been blown back by the wall.
> 
> “He has already begun, he has to finish what he started.” you explain to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello you lovely readers and Mando simps! This is where the story starts to get on track with the last few episodes of season 2, but it isn't going to follow canon.

_ Stay the fuck out of my head. _

His harsh words replayed in your head. He has never said anything like that to you in an angry tone like that. You felt guilty, you saw a memory that was his. You forced it out of him.

Mando was distant the entire day, barely speaking to you. You know you had upset him when you accidentally sensed an echo from him, causing you to see what happened to him as a child, and causing him to relive it. After he had been understanding about you not wanting to talk about Gideon and the other tortures the Empire did to you, you violated his privacy, his  _ trust. _

You had seen what happened to his parents, how they had been killed by separatist droids, how scared he had been, how the Mandalorians rescued him. You had seen  _ him _ . You saw his brown hair, and deep brown-eyes. The hair and eyes you had dreamed of seeing, but not like that. 

You wanted to talk to him, you wanted to fix it.

You went to Cara’s office where he was there, talking to her, he doesn’t bother to turn his helmet to acknowledge you. 

Cara looks at you, “hey, you need something?”

“I…” you turn to Mando, “I was wondering if we could talk.”

“I have to go meet with Karga.” he says shortly. You reach for his arm and he withdraws from you, making you pause and feeling your stomach turn. He doesn’t want you to touch him. Does he think you would do it again? Cara looks between the two of you as Mando turns and exits.

“What was that?” She asks with confusion in her eyes.

“I...I did something, something I didn’t mean to do. He’s angry with me.” you admit quietly to her.

“I’m sure he will come around if it was an accident,” she tries to reassure you. You shrug at her words, “I hope so.”

You made your way to the school to get Grogu, he was happy to see you. He reached up for you to pick him up, you nuzzled him close to your chest. “Come on, let’s go back to the Crest, maybe you can soften your dad up for me later.”

You make your way through the town with him until you get to the ship. You lower the ramp and go up. You set Grogu down and get him some food. You remove your poncho and set your saber down. You look at the blankets and pillows on the floor in the corner….make that a pillow. There was only one there. You looked in the nook and Din’s pillow was back in there. When had he moved it? Why had he moved it? You took a deep breath and felt water start to set in your eyes. Was everything ruined with Din? Had the echo been too much that it freaked him out to be near you? 

You hear Grogu make a noise, you turn and he is looking at you with his ears down, he must sense your sadness. You pick him up, “it’s okay,” a tear going down your cheek, “I just screwed up.”

He reaches a hand up to your cheek, you smile at the gesture. “Thanks kiddo,” you utter and set him in the hammock and close the door to the nook. You take off your boots and lay down on your spot on the floor, and tears start to stream down your cheeks as you think about the fact that Din won’t be laying next to you later.

You grab the necklace around your neck playing with it until sleep overtakes you.

* * *

  
  
  


_ Stay the fuck out of my head. _

The words he said to you out of his anger persistently repeating themselves in his head. 

He moved his pillow when you had taken Grogu to the school, he just couldn’t risk being close to you right now, and having it happen again.

Mando hadn’t really had any more business to talk with Karga about, but he would rather do anything than have that conversation with you. He didn’t know how he felt towards you. Is he mad at you? Honestly, he doesn’t know. He had woken up and then you touched him and suddenly he was watching the day his parents died and he was taken in by the Mandalorians. You told him you hadn’t meant to do it, he believed you on that, but he was so upset in his own emotions that he snapped at you. 

And when you reached for him in Cara’s office, he defensively moved away. He saw the look of hurt on your face, and it killed him inside, and he wanted to take it back but it was too late. 

Instead of going to the Cantina like he had told you, he went to the arms dealer to look at some new weapons. Not that he could afford to spend credits on any new blasters at the moment, but maybe find some features to add to his weapons. 

He looked at the wares, most of the stuff he either already possessed or had a better option. 

Then he saw some metal boot add-ons. Curiously he looked at them. The vendor walked over, “Ah, yes. Activational boot grounding inserts.” He presses a button and a blade pops out. Mando turned his helmet to him. 

“What kind of purpose would these serve?” he questions.

“Many travelers on planets that can have storms use them to keep traction on the ground, the blade digs into the ground below you.” the man answers. Mando thinks it over, he has gotten caught in a storm on Jakku before that made him take shelter for a few days. Perhaps these could be useful. 

“How much?” Mando inquires.

“150 credits.” the vendor says and Mando pulls the credits out and pays him. He exits the shop and walks to the Crest. 

He lowers the ramp and goes up, seeing you already asleep on the floor. He could see the tear stains on your face, he closed his eyes, under the helmet as the guilt ate at him. He just couldn’t bring himself to talk to you about it. And if anything like that happened again, he would lose it. He closed the ramp and walked over the sleeping chamber.

He opened the door to the nook, the kid was asleep in his hammock. He shed his armor and climbed in. He turned out the lights in there and took off his helmet. He missed having your body close to him, and smelling your fruity soap from your hair and skin as he fell asleep.

* * *

  
  
  


About two more days of awkward tension on Nevarro passed until you were on course for Tython. The mechanics at Nevarro made a few repairs on the crest while you were there that it flew a bit smoother. 

Mando was still avoiding you, only one or two words in your exchanges. You had been sleeping alone at night, crying as you fell asleep. You missed his arms around you, his body heat keeping you warm in the dark hull, the feeling of his soft  _ brown _ curls as you ran your fingers through his hair, his soft lips on yours. You missed  _ Din. _

The worst part was he didn’t seem to care. The man, who had been so gentle with you, who gave you that necklace, who made that promise to you, who had made love to you, seemed to be gone, and leaving an emotionless shell in his place. Maybe he really didn’t care for you anymore. Maybe the echo pushed him too far, and maybe he regrets ever getting close to you. 

And maybe he doesn’t love you like you thought he had.

You sit in the hull meditating asking the force to help calm your emotions. You hear the beeping from the cockpit, meaning you’ll be arriving at Tython soon. You stand up and debate going up the ladder to where the man in beskar is. You opt in doing it, and climb up the ladder. You see him in the pilot’s chair, readying to get out of hyperspace. You lift Grogu from the other seat and sit down with him in your lap. 

You sit silently, watching Mando in front of you. You just want him to hold you, and tell you that he still cares about you. 

He grabs the controls as the ship comes out of hyperspace, you see Tython in view. He locks in the coordinates for the stone you told him about, and flies down into the atmosphere. 

You see the stone. You look down at Grogu, “this is going to help you kiddo.” 

“We can’t land there, it’s not flat enough. We’ll have to make a hike.” Mando says surprising you, that was the most he has said to you the past few days. He lands the ship and you descend the ladder with Grogu, with Mando following. 

You grab your lightsaber and place it on its spot on your belt and throw your poncho over your head. You make your way out of the Crest and start the hike up the hill while carrying Grogu. Mando is trailing closely behind you. You make your way around the boulders, until you finally reach the top.

You walk over to the rock in the middle and set Grogu down on it. “The rest is up to you, Grogu,” you tell the child as you back away.

You and Mando wait, Grogu is just looking around. “This is the seeing stone, are you seeing anything? Maybe there is some kind of control for it?” Mando asks and you roll your eyes.

“Give him a minute, he needs to reach out into the force,” you chime in.

A butterfly flies in front of the kid and he looks at it and reaches out. Mando sighs, “this seems pointless.” 

“Patience,” is all you say.

Grogu then puts a hand on the stone he is sitting on and closes his eyes. Then a blue wall of light appears around him, and you smile. 

“I knew he could do it.” You say, but then you and Mando notice a ship overhead that goes and lands at the bottom of the hill. 

“Time’s up kid, we gotta get out of here.” the man in armor says while walking up to the blue field “Wait, Mando!” you try to stop him, but he had already been blown back by the wall.

“He has already begun, he has to finish what he started.” you explain to him.

“Fine, you stay here with him, I’ll see if I can buy some time, please hurry up kid,” he pulls his blaster out and doesn’t say anything to you before going down the hill. 

“Be careful,” you yell down, he may not care about you, but you still care about him.

  
  


* * *

  
  
  


Mando makes his way down the hill around the boulders, when he starts being shot at. He ducks behind a boulder. When the fire stops he pecks to the side with his blaster.

After a few exchanges of words, the man, Boba Fett, who says the armor Cobb Vanth had was his, Mando is tired of the conversation.

“And what is to stop me from shooting you where you stand?” Mando tilts his helmet.

“Because I have a sharpshooter armed on the ridge, with a locked scope that will unload by the time my body hits the ground,” he says, determined.

“I’m the one wearing beskar, as soon as the muzzle flashes, you’re both dead,” he responds, holding his blaster up higher, pointed at Fett.

“I never said she was aiming at you, she’s locked on to your girl up there, and then the kid is an easy target as well,” he growls back.

“And I don’t miss, Mando,” a female voice interrupts.

“Fennec?” he says, looking up, “you point that gun away from her, or I’ll drop you both where you stand,” he holds out his other vambrace, engaging his whistling birds. He wasn’t going to let anything happen to you or the kid, he had been trying to find the words to say to you over the last couple days, but his pride stopped him. 

“There is no need for bloodshed,” Fett says.

“Tell her to drop the gun,” Mando says, not letting up.

“After you put down the jetpack,” the scarred man negotiates.

“Same time,” Mando says. 

He tells Fennec to stand down and Mando removes the jetpack from his back.

Mando speaks with Boba and Fennec, about his armor and how he saved her on Tattooine. Then Fennec informs the Mandalorian of some information.

“The bounty on the kid is high, but the bounty on the woman is astronomically higher. The Empire is willing to pay anything to have her, and they know she is traveling with you. 

Mando looks back at the stone, still seeing the blue light, he turns back to them, “they are in my care, I will do anything to protect them.” 

“I will help guarantee their safety in return for my armor, it’s a good deal,” Fett says.

Then an imperial transport flies above, they all move to take positions. Mando doesn’t know how the Empire found you here. 

A company of stormtroopers emerges from the transport, Mando engages in battle with them, Fennec and Fett, fighting with him.

  
  


* * *

  
  
  


You see the transport fly above and land over on the flat ground, “dank farrik,” you mumble as you hear blaster fire down the hill. You look at Grogu, still reaching into the force. 

“Not to rush you or anything kiddo, but we are about to be out of time,” you say to him, as you grab your lightsaber from your belt, ready to ignite it if an enemy shows. 

You continue to watch down the hill, you catch a glint of the beskar armor, hoping that he’ll be okay between the stormtroopers and whoever the other ship was. You see another imperial transport fly above you. You want to go help, but you can’t leave Grogu alone. 

Soon an imperial cruiser shows up high in the sky, it shows down a blast, hitting the Razor Crest, and destroying it. 

You see some figures deploy from the cruiser,  _ dark troopers _ .

You ignite the green blade in your hand, ready to fight them. The blue light stops and Grogu falls asleep. “Great, perfect timing,” you say sarcastically. As they approach, they start firing at you, but you easily block the shots with your saber. They land and you engage in combat with them, force pushing one back, and then cutting through one of them. You see one going for Grogu, you start to lunge toward it, but you feel a cord wrap around your legs and pull your legs and pull, making you land on the ground. Then you feel a wave of electricity course through you, making you drop your saber and shake, and then everything goes black. 

* * *

  
  
  


The troopers had just taken off with you and Grogu when Mando and Fennec got to the top. Fennec radios into Boba in his ship that is approaching the troopers, “they have the girl and the baby, stop them.”

“No, he might hit them. Disengage.” Mando says, as much as he doesn’t want the Empire to take you two, killing you both is no good either.

“Nevermind, do not shoot,” Fennec says.

The troopers were out of sight. So were you and the kid. He had lost both of you. He saw your saber on the ground and walked over, picking it up. __

_ A Jedi’s weapon is their life. _

He thinks about the words you once told him. You didn’t have your weapon, you didn’t have your life. He had lost you without fixing things with you. He had lost you while you thought he didn’t care. 

He had lost you. 

  
  



	14. The Rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Hey, hey, it’s me, it’s alright,” he comfortingly says. 
> 
> “Din,” you say in a hoarse voice, your throat being dryer than Tattooine, “you….you came for me?” you ask him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello you lovely readers and Mando simps, time for Din to the rescue.

You wake in a cell, your hands cuffed with force-dampening cuffs, and your light-saber is gone. You look around, it’s an imperial star cruiser cell. The Empire captured you, you try to remember the details, you were on Tython, the dark troopers that had been turned to droids...Grogu. Had they gotten Grogu? Was he in one of these cells? Were they torturing him? You couldn’t sense anything because of the cuffs. 

Then the door slides open and two stormtroopers walk in with blasters, followed by the man in black, Moff Gideon. You sit up and your breath hitches and your body goes tense. This is one of the men that tortured you. 

“Good to see you again y/n,” he starts, “I do hope you haven’t forgotten me.”

“Gideon,” the name feeling like venom on your lips.

“We had trouble finding you,” he grabs your face with one hand, making you look at him. “Until I heard you became the Mandalorians whore.” 

You spit in his face, he lets go of you only to backhand you across the cheek. 

Your head turns at the impact, “where’s the kid?” 

“We are using him for experiments,” your eyes widen, “don’t worry, I have orders to not cause you too much harm, a special visitor is on their way to see you.” he states.

Thrawn. It had to be, you heard he survived the downfall of the Empire. 

“Fuck you.” you bark at him, and he hits you again, you know that one will bruise, and he grabs you by the neck, lifting you up.

“I may have orders to not kill you, but I can still do what I need to keep you in line,” he says in a low threatening tone, and then lets go of you, you collapse onto the bench.

He walks out with the troopers, shutting the door behind him.

You didn’t care what happened to you, but Grogu...you cared about him, you didn’t want him hurt. You were his master, you were supposed to protect him. 

* * *

  
  


Mando was desperate, so desperate that he had Cara get Mayfield out of prison, so desperate he put on stormtrooper armor, so desperate he took off his helmet in the Imperial bas on Morak to access the system to get the location of Gideon’s cruiser, so desperate that people had seen his face. 

Any imperials that saw his face were dead, and Mayfield acted like it had never happened, understanding how desperate he was to save you and Grogu.

_Everyone has their lines they don’t cross until they get desperate._

That was what Mayfield had said to him in the base. After that mission, after he removed his helmet, Mando knew there was nothing he wouldn’t do for you and the kid, even if he had to break every rule in his creed, he was going to save you both.

He didn’t even want to think about what they were doing to you, what they had planned. He knew they wanted the kids blood. But Fennec and Fett said they had an even higher bounty on you. Why? Why did the Empire want you so badly? Were they going to torture you again? It sent a shiver down his spine just thinking about it.

Along with being desperate, he felt guilt. Guilt that he was so cold towards you, unmoving, uncaring. Guilt that you probably think he doesn’t _love_ you. Even though on the inside he was dying to embrace you, and hold you close to him. His pride prevented him from doing so before you were taken, but now, when he gets you back, he is going to say everything to you. 

_“Moff Gideon, you have something I want. You may think you have some idea of what you are in possession of, but you do not. Soon, they will be back with me. They mean more to me than you will ever know.”_

He sent the transmission to Gideon, repeating the words he had said to him on Nevarro all those months back. 

Fennec and and Fett had helped him get to Dr. Pershing, who had told him that the kid and you were still alive. He said they had finished their testing of Grogu’s blood. He claimed he didn’t know why they wanted you alive so badly. He said something about the 12th Brother being tasked with delivering you to Thrawn. From the story you had told Mando before, he knew a brother meant an Inquisitor. Were they going to try to turn you into an Inquisitor again? That means they would torture you, and Mando wasn’t going to let that happen, he couldn’t let that happen. He had to get to Gideon’s cruiser before the 12th brother.

He hated Gideon, and he couldn’t wait to beat the shit out of him, he would kill him, but Cara wanted him kept alive for the New Repulic.

  
  


….

Gideon was angry from the transmission Mando sent him, he had ordered for you to be beaten to unconsciousness. All you knew were that three troopers had come in and started beating you, you were pushed back onto the floor, your head hitting against the bench, your vision blurring and then blacking out. 

….

Mando and the crew he had assembled were en route to the cruiser. He was coming for you and the kid. He was going to get you back. He had his blaster, spear, and your saber on his waist. Bo-katan and Sackhoff are going to go retrieve the kid and go to the bridge that Cara and Fennec should have secured by then. Mando was going to take care of the dark troopers, then go after you. 

They exited hyperspace in Pershing transport, Fett ‘shooting’ at them closely behind. Bo-Katan radioed to the cruiser, telling them they needed to land in the bay, the cruiser command told them to wait to dock, but Bo landed anyway. They lowered the ramp and quickly got to work with the attack. 

Mando made his way to where the dark troopers were held, he got there too late. One got out of the doors, the others pounding on the doors to get out. He fought the one trooper that escaped, throwing everything he had at it. Nothing seemed to make a scratch. He tries his whistling birds, it still makes an advance to him, pulls out the spear and drives it through the droids neck. 

He runs over and opens the airlock on the other dark troopers sending them into the vacuum of space. He lets out a relieved sigh. Now onto your cell, he makes his way down to the brig, shooting the stormtrooper that is standing guard. He goes over and opens the door.

He sees you laying on the ground, beaten and bruised, making his blood boil and wanted to torture every imperial imp on this ship. He walks over and kneels down, and gently brushes your bruised cheek. 

“Red,” he says, now cupping your face, “Red, wake up.”

You flutter your eyelashes, jumping once your consciousness comes about you, but not your thoughts. He quickly hushes you and embraces you. 

“Hey, hey, it’s me, it’s alright,” he comfortingly says. 

“Din,” you say in a hoarse voice, your throat being dryer than Tattooine, “you….you came for me?” you ask him.

You asked him that question in a surprised tone, because you had really been unsure of the answer. It made his guilt feel like a punch in the stomach, you had really thought he wouldn’t come for you. It just made him hate himself more for being so cold towards you.

“Of course,” comes out of the modulator, “I promised you I would always be there.” You had missed even his modulated voice so much. You let out a sob, and he hushes you again, “come on, let’s get you out of here.” He undoes the cuffs on you, and you feel your senses come back to you. He pulls out a bacta shot from his belt and injects it into you. You notice your saber is hanging on his belt as well.

He helps you to stand, your head is killing you, pounding inside your skull from when you hit it on the bench. He puts one of your arms around his shoulders to support some of your weight and one of his arms around your waist, his blaster in his other hand.

You make your way out of the cell, and through the halls of the cruiser, trying to ignore the pain in your head. You turn a corner with him, and Gideon is there, with a lightsaber, but it looked _different._ You have never seen a saber like that. It was dark in the middle with light on the edges.

“I can’t let you leave with her, Mando. The kid is all yours, we have completed our work with him. But the Empire needs her. I’ll offer you a deal, you and your other friends can leave with the kid, but she stays.” Gideon says in a sincere tone.

“Not going to happen, she and the kid are coming with me, and you are going to rot in a republic prison.” Mando growls out. He takes you over to the wall, helping you sit and lean against it. 

“M-Mando, that’s a lightsaber,” you manage to say through the pounding in your head. 

“I know,” he pulls the beskar spear from behind his back and turns to face Gideon. 

They start fighting and all you can do is watch and hope that the Mandalorian you love will win. You feel the bacta shot he had given you taking effect, but you still feel weak as you try to help him by using the force. You can’t keep focused though with the pressure in your head only slowly subsiding. 

You watch as Mando fights Gideon, blocking the saber strikes with the spear. Mando manages to back him up to the wall, and hits the saber out of his hand and points the spear at him.

“You’re sparing my life? Well this should be interesting,” Gideon says from the ground.

You let your nerves relax, knowing Mando beat him. Mando binds Gideon’s hands and grabs the saber and goes over to you, and helps you up. The bacta has worked enough at this point that you can walk on your own. Mando ignites the saber and walks behind Gideon with it to the bridge. 

You see Bo-Katan there, you haven’t seen her in years, not since you were working with Ezra and Sabine during the rebellion. Cara is also there, along with another two other women you don’t recognize. You see Grogu on a chair, relieved to see him okay. Bo hardly looks at you, instead she is fixed on Mando and Gideon.

“What happened?” she asks, sounding unhappy.

“He brought him in alive, that’s what happened,” Cara interjects with a smile, “and now the new republic is going to have to double the payment.”

“That’s not what she’s talking about,” Gideon turns to Bo, “why don’t you kill him know and take it.” 

Your eyes go wide. Why would she kill Mando? Cara pushes Gideon onto the ground and he looks at Mando, “it’s yours now.”

“What is?” Mando asks confused. 

“The dark saber, it belongs to you.” He states.

Mando switches it off and goes over to Bo-Katan and tries to yield it to her, but she doesn’t take it. Gideon goes on about how it must be won in battle to lay claim to the Mandalorian throne, and she rejects Mando’s insistence. 

“Just call Fett back. I have the cruiser, the saber is yours and she can take Gideon. It’s good to see you again y/n.” She says to you, you nod, happy she isn’t going to fight Din for the saber. 

* * *

  
  
  


The man named Boba Fett drops you, Mando, Grogu, Cara, and Gideon off in Nevarro. Cara takes Gideon to a holding cell until the New Republic arrives to transport him to a prison. You and Mando make your way with Grogu to an inn on Nevarro seeing as the Crest had been destroyed. You lay down on the bed, the Bacta had made you feel much better, but you’re body still just ached all over. 

Mando made a spot for Grogu in the corner, and the kid quickly went to sleep, being as he was exhausted from the Empire’s tests and the events of today.

You hear Mando by the table in the room, taking off his armor, he then walks over to the light and turns it off and you hear his helmet come off. You are surprised when you feel him lay on the bed next to you and wrap his arms around you. You fight your aching bones and turn over to face him.

“Are you sure you want to be close to me?” You ask him, he hadn’t wanted to touch you before the Empire had taken you. 

He leans his forehead against yours and you hear his wonderful unmodulated voice, “I’m more sure than I’ve ever been. I’m sorry y/n, for before, for being cold to you, for making you think I didn’t care.”

“I violated your privacy, you had a right to hate me.” you quietly respond.

“I know it was an accident, I was just being a stubborn asshole,” he admits, “I don’t hate you,” he searched for his next words, unknowing on how to actually say them. “When the Empire took you, I regretted how I acted to you. I regretted that the Empire took you without me telling you how I feel.” 

“Din, you’ve already told me enough,” you say.

“No, I haven’t, I want to say this, I need to say this,” he pauses and presses his lips softly to yours. You take in the kiss, you missed his touch, but then he pulls away again, and softly utters the words

“I love you.” 

  
  



	15. Hidden Gem

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Mando! Well, what do you think?” He asks, smiling, obviously proud of what he was able to get Mando.
> 
> “Looks good, from the outside at least. How does it fly?” he questions, sounding a bit skeptical. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello you lovely readers and Mando simps, so for the new ship, I was personally picturing something between the millennium falcon and padme's ship, but feel free to use your own imagination.

You wake in the morning, you feel that Din isn’t laying down, but is sitting up on the edge of the bed. You push yourself up, and crawl over to him, sitting on your knees behind him and put your arms around both of his sides going upwards so your hands are resting on the spots where his chest meets his shoulders, you kiss his spine and you lay your cheek against his toned back, taking in the slight smell of leather and amber from his skin. He sighs and relaxes to your embrace, but you can sense he is uneasy.

“What’s wrong?” you whisper into the dark.

You feel him inhale a deep breath and exhale it, “I was just thinking about something the doctor that had been doing the experiments on the kid said. We used his transport to make our way onto the cruiser,” he states.

“What did he say?” You furrow your brow.

“He said they had collected what they needed from the kid, and also how Gideon said was willing to let us leave with him...but…” he trails off.

“But?” You ask still searching for the answer.

“He said he didn’t know why the Empire needed you, but he said something about the 12th brother being tasked to deliver you to Thrawn.” He states, turning his head to the side. You lift your head from his back. 12th brother? You never met the 12th brother. You had met many of the Inquisitors during the Empire reign, you thought they all perished with the downfall of the Empire. But hearing this news makes your stomach turn. What did Thrawn want you for? 

“That’s why Gideon was willing to let you go if you had left me there. Whatever I am to the Empire, they want desperately.” Fear starting to take hold in your voice as you think about the torture they did before. Gideon had orders to not torture you, mostly saving you for whatever Thrawn and this 12th brother have planned. 

Din must have heard the fear in your voice because he turns his body and takes your face in his hands.

“I have you back, and I’m not losing you again. I won’t let anything happen to you,” he says to console you, and then kisses your forehead. 

“What if they want to try again in making me an inquisitor? I can’t go through that again Din,” you sob and tears go down your cheeks. He turns his hips on the bed and pulls you into his chest, one arm on your back, the other on the back of your head.

“Gideon is locked up, so that’s already one less imp to worry about, but I promise I will kill every last imperial imp before I let them take you, Red.” He tells you while stroking your hair as you cry into his chest, feeling it rise and fall from his own worried breathing.

“I took my helmet off in order to find you and Grogu. I showed my face to people,” he admits, “there is no line I wouldn’t cross, no creed I wouldn’t break, to protect you.” 

You hold him tighter at his confession, he had gone against something so important to him for you and Grogu. He said he would break his whole creed for you. 

“I love you,” you let out between your sobs.

“I love you too,” he responds and kisses the top of your head.

* * *

  
  


You step out of the fresher, Grogu was sitting on the bed eating, and Mando was fully armored and putting his boots on. 

“So where do we go from here? We don’t have a ship anymore,” you realize.

“Well with the credits we got from detaining Gideon and I called in a favor from Karga, the kid saved his life once, he found us one. We are going to go take a look this morning.” He explains to you.

You nod, and throw your poncho on. Mando, hold out your saber, “here, I kept it safe with me.”

You smile at the visor and take it from him, hooking it onto your belt, “Thank you.”

Once you both are ready, you pick up Grogu, and walk out to the outskirts of the town where Karga is with a ship, from what you can tell, looks to be in decent shape.

“Mando! Well, what do you think?” He asks, smiling, obviously proud of what he was able to get Mando.

“Looks good, from the outside at least. How does it fly?” he questions, sounding a bit skeptical. 

“Flies well actually, here, I’ll show you the engine.” He waves his hand over and Mando goes over to the engine compartment with him. You decide to walk up the ramp of the ship with Grogu, and check out the inside.

The ship is one level, besides the carbonite storage ladder, and set-up long ways. The cock-pit in the front with a door separating it from the rest of the ship, then there is a small closet on the side of the ship just outside the door. That could be a good spot for Grogu to sleep. Then there is a large closet next to that one, probably good for Mando’s weapons, once he buys more since they were destroyed on the Crest. Then there is a small area with a table with a bench around it. It will be nice to not have to sit on cargo crates all the time. 

You walk further back, and over another door on the side, it’s a small bedroom, a little bit of space to stand in the room, and then the rest of the room is the bed, an actual bed. You smile when you think about that you and Din would actually have a bed to sleep on instead of the floor like you had been doing in the Crest. 

“A real bed, maybe your dad will be less grumpy now,” you say and laugh while looking down at Grogu in your arms, and he coos up at you. You close the door to the bedroom and see the last door in the back of the ship, you check it and it’s the fresher, slightly bigger than the one on the Crest had been. 

Depending on how the engine is, this ship seems pretty nice to you. You walk back out the ramp and over to Mando and Karga by the engine, he turns to you, “how is the inside?” he asks through the modulator. 

“It’s nice, I like it, and so does Grogu.” You tell him. 

“Good, cause the engine seems decent. So this ship is going to be our new home, “ he looks at Karga, “does it have a name?”

“Hidden Gem,” he says with a smile. 

* * *

  
  


You and Mando restock on supplies for the Gem before leaving. Mando informs you that he is going to get some bounty pucks from Karga before you leave, you take the last haul of the supplies back to the ship with Grogu and put them away, trying to make the Gem feel more normal. You set Grogu on the bench at the table and sit next to him and eat some food, while you await Mando’s return. 

About an hour later, Mando walks into the new ship with only one puck, you give him a confused look. 

“Only one puck?” You ask, last time he had four.

“Karga said business has been slow, and also that this one wouldn’t be easy. He’s ex-imperial, and pissed off just the right person to put a bounty on him.” He says setting the puck down and the hologram turns on, “Karga said he had powerful friends, didn’t say much more,” he finishes.

“I don’t like the sound of that,” you tell him.

“We are a Mandalorian and a Jedi, nothing is a match for us,” he states.

There’s an upturn at your lips, and you nod. He has been using the term ‘we’ and ‘ours’ so much, and it makes you happy every time you hear it.

“Where are we heading for this bounty?” You ask.

“Dantooine.”

* * *

  
  


You were in hyperspace on your way to Dantooine, and starting to feel exhausted.

You set up some blankets in the small closet, and help Grogu fall asleep, he wasn’t keen on sleeping in the new place, but with some reassurance, he finally closed his eyes and you closed the door. You make your way to the other bedroom, Mando was in the shower. You undress, just leaving yourself in your underwear, and crawl into the other side of the bed. It’s actually comfortable, so much better than the floor of the Crest. 

You rest your head against your pillow and close your eyes. You feel the sleep start to over take you when you feel strong arms wrapping around you, and soft kisses on your neck. You feel Din’s bare chest against your back. You open your eyes, he had turned out the lights when he came in. You place an arm over his, resting your hand on top of his. 

“This bed is nice,” you say, and all he does is hum against your neck, still moving his lips along it, in agreement. You can feel him starting to harden against your ass cheek. 

“You know, we should really make this bed our own,” and you know he can hear the smirk on your face when he groans and grinds his hips into your ass. Then he moves downwards, under the blanket. His hands go to your hips and he turns you to lay flat. His fingers hook under the sides of your underwear and he pulls them down your legs. He pushes your legs open and moves to rest between them.

You feel his hot breath above you, making you wet with anticipation. His tongue flicks you clit, and you intake a sharp breath. He then lays his tongue flattened against your clit and you moan and arch your back. You grab the sheets below you with your fists. He stays like that, his tongue flat and sliding it back and forth from your to your folds. 

His tongue makes its way back up to your clit and he latches his lips and sucks, making you let out a loud, breathy moan. He slides a finger into you, but keeps it still.

“Fuck,” you breathe, and try to roll your own hips on his finger. But then he removes it and his tongue from you clit, and you whimper. But then you feel his tongue inside you and swirling around, eliciting a moan of pleasure from you. His tongue was warm and wet, it felt so good. You can feel your legs start shaking and your toes curling, Knowing you are close.

Din all must have felt your legs start to shake because he picked up his pace of swirling his tongue, and presses a thumb to your clit, rubbing circles. You let out a high-pitched moan, and tighten your grip on the sheets, making your knuckles turn white, as you arch your back and your orgasm overtakes you. 

A series of moans with Din’s name between them falling off your lips as you come down from your high. Din doesn’t remove his tongue until he feels you relax, then he starts kissing up your body, emerging from the blanket. He kisses up your stomach, one of his hands grabs one of your breasts and squeezes, his mouth moves to the other one and he wraps his mouth around your nipple, swirling his tongue around it the same way he did inside you. 

You grab the hair on the back of his head and pull him up for a kiss, desperately seeking him. You are still able to taste yourself in his mouth as you both move your tongues together. You push him over and move out from under him so you can climb on top. You straddle his hips and roll your hips down onto him to slide his cock along your heat to coat him in your slick. He grunts at the sensation, and places his hands on your waist. You lift your hips and grab his cock to line it up with yourself, feeling the tip at the entrance, staying there for a moment to tease him, but his hands on your waist pull you down onto him, making you sink onto him roughly and feel him fill you.

You moan out together, your hands finding his shoulders. You lean down to kiss him again, he bites on your bottom lip as you pull away and start to roll your hips on him. His breath hitches as you do.

“I couldn’t stop thinking about you in the shower,” he growls at you while firming his grip on your waist.

“Should have asked me to join you, there is room for two in the shower on this ship.” You respond while keeping the pace of your hips. He starts to move his hips up, timing it with the rolling of your hips. 

But you suddenly change your movements, and start bouncing up and down on him, making him moan loudly. 

“Fuck!” he yells and sits up, wrapping an arm around your waist. He starts thrusting his hips up into you, hitting that sweet spot inside you, raising another orgasm so suddenly upon you. You put an arm around him and the other one in his hair. You cry out as he repeatedly hits that spot as you feel the pleasure course through you, hearing his panted grunts against your chest. He continues to thrust his hips up, bouncing you in his lap, until the arm around you pulls you down and his body goes rigid as he moans, resting his forehead on your chest, and empties himself.

He relaxes, catching his breath, he kisses the swell of one of your breasts and turns his head up at you, “you’re incredible.”

You stroke his hair with your hand that is on the back of his head, “we’re incredible,” you say and kiss him.

  
  



	16. Trust

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The man in the cloak looks at you and stops, “y/n?” You look at him, confused, “who are you?”
> 
> He pulls his hood down and switches off his lightsaber, you immediately soften your expression and switch your saber off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello you lovely readers and Mando simps! Another chapter today! I've had some extra time!

Another two days of hyperspace in the Hidden Gem, and you finally are approaching Dantooine. You are ready to get out of the ship after being stuck in hyperspace. You sit in the copilot’s seat that is even with the pilot’s seat in this ship.

“I’ll let you take us out of hyperspace and land the ship. You did say you knew how to fly,” he voices through his modulator while he stands from his seat to let you sit there. You look at him and smile, getting up, handing the child to him and sitting in the pilot’s seat, and he sits in the copilot’s seat. 

You look at the controls before you, and like clockwork, you already know what to do as you start hitting certain buttons, you reach your hand over to one, “exiting hyperspace,” you say and flip the switch and the ship jolts and you see Dantooine in the void of space in front of you. You can feel the visor watching everything you do beside you. 

You grab the throttle and steer the ship toward the green planet. 

“Land on that ridge there, it’s a good vantage point without us being too visible.” He chimes in. You listen to him and steer the ship to the ridge and hover above the spot to land, pressing the button to release the stabilizers and slowly lowering the ship onto the ground. You turn off the engine and turn to the Mandalorian next to you.

“Not bad,” you can hear the smile on his face under the helmet. 

“Told you I could fly, metal-head,” you taunt and stand up, opening the door to the main cabin, you hear the fob beeping. “Uh, Din, the fob is going off.”

He quickly stands up and walks over, grabbing it, “the quarry is close.” He sets Grogu down on the bench and goes and opens the ramp and grabs his jetpack. 

“Wait! You said this guy had powerful friends!” You yell, but Mando is already out the ramp and looking down the ridge, and takes off with his pack. “Dank farrik, kiddo, stay here,” you say looking at the green child. You grab your saber and put it on your belt, and run down the ramp. 

Mando is flying towards the speeders moving along the ground at the bottom of the ridge. You run along the top of it, watching. Mando shoots his blaster at the front one and the guy crashes and rolls on the ground. Mando lands by him. The other speeder stops, the driver is cloaked and then you see a green lightsaber ignite. The quarry is working with a Jedi? Mando said this guy was ex-imperial, that doesn’t make sense. But you guess that’s what Karga meant by ‘powerful’ friends. 

Mando turns from the quarry to face the figure with the saber, they start getting into a battle. Mando doesn’t have his spear, using his vambraces to block the saber swings. You need to get down there to help him, you jump down, sliding down the sides of the ridge. Mando is using his own armor’s tools to help him, but the Jedi holds out his hand and puts him in a force choke. You are running as fast as you can down the ridge over to them, grabbing your lightsabers hilt from your belt. 

The cloaked figure force throws Mando onto the ground and lunges to do a downward strike, you dive forward, igniting your saber and place it over Mando, as the other saber comes downward and it collides with yours. You pull up on your saber and force push him back with your hand. 

The man in the cloak looks at you and stops, “y/n?” You look at him, confused, “who are you?”

He pulls his hood down and switches off his lightsaber, you immediately soften your expression and switch your saber off.

“Ezra?” You say, it’s been years, you worked with him and his crew for a few years after you lost Cal, doing some jobs for the rebel alliance. He was older now with some lines on his face, you had gone your own way when he was 17. You walk over and hug him, and he returns the hug. 

Mando gets to his feet and tilts his head, “are you forgetting he was just about to slice me in two?”

You pull away from the hug about to say something, but Ezra beats you to it, “you shot at my friend first, Bucket-brain!” He holds his arm out gesturing to the man that had been on the speeder Mando shot at, he was now walking over.

“Dank farrik, what’s going on?” the man asks, rubbing his head.

“We’re about to find out Kallus,” Ezra replies, turning to you, “you’re with him?” He makes a fist point the thumb at Mando. 

You nod, “yeah, I am, your friend here, Kallus, is our bounty.” 

“Bounty? You’re a bounty hunter now?” he raises an eyebrow.

“Well he is, I’m not,” you nod your head toward Mando, “I’m training his foundling.” You explain. 

“Well you can’t take Kallus, he’s my friend, he’s part of the crew,” he looks at you. The crew, him, Hera, Sabine, Zeb, Kanan and Chopper, though you had heard that Kanan had died a while back. 

“Red, you want to explain to me how you know him?” Mando interrupts. You turn to him.

“Mando, this is Ezra, he and his crew had helped save me from the Empire, I stayed with them a few years working for the Rebel Alliance. He’s like family to me,” you clarify to him. 

Mando’s body easies when you say he saved you from the Empire, accepting that as enough to make him a friend, but then turns his helmet to Kallus, “so what are you doing with an ex-imperial commander? What if he tips them off about you?”

“I’ll have you know I betrayed the Empire, and joined alongside the rebellion long before the downfall of the Empire,” Kallus barks back. 

“Tips them off about you?” Ezra questions. 

“The Empire, they’re hunting me, they want me for something.” you tell your old friend.

“Well I can tell you, Kallus is on our side.” Ezra reassures you. 

You walk over in front of Mando, “if Ezra trusts him, then I trust him. And you trust me right?” You look into the visor, searching for an answer.

He sighs, “of course I do. I’ll follow your lead.” 

“You can come back to our base, everyone would love to see you again y/n.” Ezra says with a smile. 

* * *

  
  
  


Mando lands the ship at their base and you exit with him and Grogu. Ezra greets Grogu who is walking beside you, and then leads you inside, and Zeb is arguing with Chopper, but stops when he sees you.

“Well I’ll be, didn’t know if I would ever see you again,” he says and walks over picking you up into his big Lasat arms off the ground and giving you a hug. Mando makes a defensive move until he hears you laughing.

“Hey Zeb, it’s good to see you too,” he sets you down and looks at Mando.

“Who’s this dullard?” He asks with a laugh.

“This is Mando.” You answer.

“Mando? No name?” he raises an eyebrow.

“Mando is what you can call me.” the modulator says. You can tell Mando is uncomfortable around all these strangers, but he trusts your judgement. 

“Alright then, I bet Sabine could give him a run for his money in a fight,” Zeb jokes with you and you laugh, Mando just tilts his helmet in confusion. Chopper rolls up to you, making his angry noises, you had left without saying goodbye to him. 

“Chopper hush, I know, I know, I’m sorry pal, but you were gone on a mission. I wanted to say bye to you.” You reassure the droid, but he turns away from you.

“It’s just a droid.” Mando states, and Chopper turns to him and goes over making angry noises again with his arms out, Mando pulls out his blaster, and you quickly step in front, “sorry Chopper, he isn’t too fond of droids, please forgive him.” Chopper turns and rolls away. 

You turn to Mando, and put your hands on the blaster, “please try to relax,” you calmly say. He sighs and puts the blaster back in his holster. 

Ezra watches you two, then steps up, “Maybe he and Sabine will get along,” he says and leads you down the hall. You laugh slightly, Sabine may be Mandalorian, but she is spunky and outgoing, nothing at all like Din. Ezra leads you to the power room where Sabine is working with some wires, she looks up and sees Mando, “who is that?” then you step out from behind him.

“Hey there Spunks,” you say with a big smile. She smiles back and runs to hug you. “Y/n, maker, what are you doing here?” She asks.

“Uh, long story, but it’s nice to see you.” You smile and she turns to Mando and holds out her hand, “I’m Sabine, it’s nice to see another Mandalorian.” 

Mando stands there with his helmet tilted, probably has never met a Mandalorian with such a cheerful disposition, eventually he shakes her hand. 

“Mando,” he says and she squints her eyes, “Child of the Watch?” She questions and he nods, and they leave it at that. 

You assume that’s the kind of Mandalorian he is, the ones that follow his creed. 

Ezra leads you to Hera, she had been the one that consoled you when you were rescued from the Empire, but lost Cal. She was like a mother to you. You tear up and bit when you hug her, Mando changes his nature when he sees the water in your eyes, gently touching your arm when Hera turns around giving Grogu a hug and talking to him. You give him a reassuring nod to tell him you are okay, and he drops his arm. 

“You three are welcome to stay as long as you want,” Hera says, “we don’t have any extra rooms though.”

“We can stay on our ship,” Mando responds, he sees Grogu yawn, and takes him from Hera, then turns to you, “I’m going to go put him to sleep.”

You nod and he walks away. “So what’s the deal with him?” She eyes you with a little smile.

You blush at her words, “His visor barely took it’s focus off you, and I caught a glimpse of his hand on your arm,” she says.

“We are...I don’t know exactly, but we are together. We love each other.” You admit to her.

“He seems a little stoic,” she states.

“He’s a little rough around the edges, but he has a good heart.” You explain to her, she nods.

“As long as he makes you happy,” she smiles and puts a hand on your shoulder. 

* * *

  
  
  


You ate and caught up with everyone in the base and walk back to the ship with some food for Mando. You walk up the ramp, and see him, he already has taken his armor off, just leaving the helmet, sitting at the table, cleaning his blaster. 

“I brought you some food,” you set the plate down on the table, “Zeb is a great cook.”

You head to the fresher to wash up, also so that he can take his helmet off and eat. You wash your face, getting all the dirt off, you step back out, slowly in case Mando still has his helmet off, but he doesn’t say anything so you continue on.

You walk back over to him, you see the food is gone and you smile and sit on his lap.

“You were right, he is a good cook,” he lets out.

“Please try to relax while we are here. Kallus was eating with us and he seems like a good guy. Everyone here trusts him too.” You say, and he sighs.

“I’m sorry, I just...don’t want to take any chances. But I’ll try to trust him.” He puts his arm across your lap, his hand resting on your hip. “What was that when Hera hugged you?”

You look down, then back up at him, “she comforted me through a rough time… When I lost Cal.” 

His hand moves to your cheek, holding it, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring him up, it know it’s hard to talk about him.” 

“No, it’s alright, you should know,” you take a deep breath before telling him how Cal died.

* * *

  
  
  


_You were in the torture contraption, the pedestal that had the ability to burn, shock you, cut into you. Luckily they were giving you a break, Darth Vader had just tortured you, the worst pain you’ve ever felt by far._

_You were so weak though. You couldn’t even open your eyes. All you heard were noises, the sounds of stormtroopers running. Something was happening, but you were too exhausted after fending off Vader’s mind torture to care whatever the imperials were doing. But you had endure their torture for years, you hope soon that it will just kill you._

_You hear the doors to your torture cell slide open, you ready yourself for more pain, when you feel the restraints being undone. You ready yourself to hit the floor when they are completely loosened like you normally do when they move you to your cell, always too weak to catch yourself._

_But you find yourself surprised when you don’t hit the floor, instead you crash into someone’s body, and their arms wrap around you. You manage to look up and open your eyes._

_Orange hair. Blue eyes._

_Cal._

_“C-Cal?” you weakly say in a hoarse voice._

_“Yeah, it’s me. You’re alright now,” he says._

_You manage a small smile, but then terror takes over. “You shouldn’t be here,_ **_he’s_ ** _here.”_

_Cal knows who you mean, he has already had an encounter with him. He looks back to Kanan and Sabine, “let’s get out of here.”_

_Cal carries you through the halls of the Star Destroyer, Kanan and Sabine fighting any stormtroopers you run into._

_You get to the ship hangar and you make a run for it, you hold onto Cal as best as you can. Ezra deflecting blaster bolts, and Zeb shooting back at the troopers at the ramp for the ship. You all get on the Ghost._

_“Hera, get us out of here!” Kanan yells._

_“On it!” She responds and hits the thrusters, and the ship starts to move, but you get jerked back._

_Vader is force pulling the ship, so you can’t escape._

_You hear everyone arguing about what to do, until Cal is handing you to Zeb. You open your eyes again, seeing Cal walk with his saber to the ramp._

_“Cal? Cal, what are you doing?” You say._

_He looks back at you, “you gave me the chance to escape before, now it’s my turn to let you escape. I love you.”_

_“No! No, Cal! He’ll kill you!” You cry out with tears going down your cheeks, but Cal is exiting the ship._

_“Cal! Cal! No, please!” You yell, trying to escape Zeb’s grip which is useless between how strong he is, and how weak you are._

_The ramp closes, and the last you saw was Cal’s orange hair. The next thing you know, the Ghost is shooting forward out of the hangar._

* * *

  
  
  


You finish the story, a tear going down your cheek. Mando catches it with his thumb. 

“I’m sorry,” you mutter.

“You loved him, it’s okay to be upset,” Mando replies calmly. 

“I never thought I would love anyone ever again, until I met you.” You whisper to him. 

“Close your eyes,” he softly orders.

You do, and you hear his helmet come off and he presses his lips to yours.

  
  
  
  
  
  



	17. Back With the Crew

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You walk into the coms room with Mando, and Sabine that evening. Kallus is there, just finishing a transmission. 
> 
> Mando looks at him, “who did you just contact?” 
> 
> “Mando, we talked about this,” you glare at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello you lovely readers and Mando simps. Warning! This chapter gets extra mature!

You do some sparring with Ezra the next day, you used to do this with him all the time, Din watches from a few feet away with Grogu.

“So are you and Bucket-brain a thing?” Ezra blocking some of your punches, and grabbing your wrist, and stepping behind you.

“Maybe, why?” You respond while spinning and reversing the hold to bend his arm behind him.

“He just doesn’t seem like your type,” he flips over you, breaking his arm free and landing behind you, you turn around. 

“You barely know him, and besides, a lot has changed in the time I’ve been gone.” you smirk and sweep your leg under his feet, making him fall on his stomach, you put a knee on his back and grab one of his arms. “Or maybe it hasn’t since I can still pin you on the ground.”

“I had something in my eye,” he tries to use an excuse. 

“Yeah, sure there was,” you get off him and help him up. “So you guys really stay here and run missions for the New Republic?” You ask him.

“Mostly, I’ve also been searching for Thrawn,” he says and you pause when he says that name, feeling sick to your stomach and dizzy. You must have changed your appearance enough for it to be noticeable because Mando stands up, looking at you. 

“What’s wrong?” Ezra asks, concerned.

“You know Thrawn?” you cautiously ask, you feel like you might throw up. 

“Yeah...we’ve been enemies for a while.” He says, and you nod. “Excuse me,” you run inside to the fresher, heeling over the toilet to vomit. You try to hold your hair back, then you feel it lift itself, you glance back between vomiting, and you see Mando’s boots behind you, he is holding your hair back for you. 

When you finish puking your breakfast, you flush the toilet, and you lean back against the wall. Mando kneels down in front of you. 

“What happened?” he questions, “one second you looked fine then you went pale suddenly.”

You swallow to clear the burning in your throat, “he mentioned Thrawn. An Imperial Grand Admiral that tortured me. Gideon worked alongside him, they used me for experiments.” 

“Like they did for Grogu?” he asks, moving to sit next to you against the wall, letting you lean against him. 

“Yes, but no. I don’t think they conducted the same tests on him. I don’t think he would have survived if they had.” You admit to him, tears swelling in your eyes as you think about your experiments. 

“You don’t have to tell me, I don’t like seeing you upset.” he says comfortingly, and puts his arm around you. 

“Thank you.” you whisper. 

“I did enjoy watching you knock Ezra on his face though,” he says to lighten the mood, and you laugh slightly. 

* * *

  
  
  


Mando sat with Grogu and watched you and Ezra spar, and if Ezra actually hurt you at all, he would punch him in the face. You and Ezra went back and forth, he could see you two were talking, but he didn’t have the enhanced hearing turn on for his helmet. 

He watches you sweep Ezra’s legs and pin him on the ground. He smiles, ‘that’s my girl,’ he thinks to himself. You help Ezra up and exchange some more words. Then you go pale and look like you might fallout. Mando stands, concerned and worried. He watches you say a few more words then run into the base and to the fresher. Mando follows you inside, and opens the door to the fresher to see you puking and struggling to hold your own hair.

He walks over behind you and gently grabs your hair so you don’t have to. What happened that made you go suddenly ill? Mando just watched you spar, completely fine. 

When you finish throwing up and flush the toilet, you move to lean against the wall. Mando bends down to ask you what happened, and you mention being tortured by the Empire again. He moves to sit next to you. 

Hearing the fear in your voice and seeing the tears start in your eyes, made him angry. Angry at the Empire for the trauma they did to you. He hated seeing you cry. He wanted to kill every imperial imp that had anything to do with your time of being tortured, he wanted to torture them. 

He didn’t want you to make yourself upset further by explaining the experiments they did to you. You said if they had done the same experiments on Grogu he would have died. That just makes Mando think you are that much stronger. He tells you that you don’t have to explain to him, and you were grateful that he did. 

Mando tries to cheer you up by making a joke that gets a small laugh from you, and that puts a small smile on his face.

  
  


* * *

  
  
  


You walk into the coms room with Mando, and Sabine that evening. Kallus is there, just finishing a transmission. 

Mando looks at him, “who did you just contact?” 

“Mando, we talked about this,” you glare at him. 

“It’s a simple question,” he retorts.

“One he doesn’t have to answer, he lives here, you are a guest,” Sabine says harshly.

“It’s alright,” Kallus chimes in and looks at Mando, “I contacted the New Republic headquarters on Coruscant, you can check the codes yourself.” 

The t-visor stares at him for a few seconds, “alright.” 

You glare at Mando and roll your eyes. You know he was just worried about keeping you safe from the Empire, but he was being an ass.

“Come on, you need to send Karga that transmission that there was a change of plans and we are not collecting that bounty,” you tell him.

He sighs and goes over to the transmitter and starts recording the message.

“That’s the guy that holds the darksaber?” Sabine says to you.

You look at her, confused. “Bo-katan, told me that the Mandalorian you were traveling with beat Gideon in battle.” She answers to your look.

“Well he tried to give it to her, she wouldn’t take it. He doesn’t want it,” you reply.

“Well he is stuck with it until he is defeated in battle. I stopped caring about Mandalore a long time ago. And I doubt he has ever even been, the Children of the Watch abandoned the planet a long time ago,” she finishes.

“What do you mean ‘Children of the watch’?” You ask curiously.

“They are a group of Mandalorians that broke away from Mandalorian society before the planet became a wasteland. They wanted to reinstate the old ways of the Mandalorians. Part of those old ways is not going by names, and never removing their helmets in front of people.” She explains the answer to your curiosity.

But Mando had told you his name, and he said he had taken his helmet off to find his way to Gideon’s ship. He broke his creed for you. He broke the old ways of the Mandalorians for you. 

He finishes his transmission and sends it, then he stands up and walks back over to you, “we should head in for the night, the Lasat said something about a storm coming in.”

“Zeb, his name is Zeb.” You correct him. You leave the coms room and go to the kitchen, Ezra was watching Grogu, levitating some things with the force. You pick up him, “come on kiddo, you can play with Ezra tomorrow.” 

* * *

You make your way to the Gem with Mando, carrying Grogu in your arms. You set him on the bench at the table. 

“What you pulled with Kallus was completely uncalled for,” you snarky say to him.

“Uncalled for? He was imperial, he could easily tell the Empire that you are here and we could have everything what is left of the Empire here to take you,” he spits back, walking away.

“He ‘was’ imperial. He said he betrayed the Empire before it fell. He was on the right side at the end of the rebellion. Everyone has made mistakes, _Mando_.” Even though you are alone, you are using that name. Grogu starts to get upset at the argument, you pick him up and put him in his closet, and close the door.

Mando turns to you, lifting his hand and pointing a finger and walking back toward you. “And it could be a mistake to trust him! The Empire could be here tomorrow if he sends a transmission!” he raises his voice. You hear thunder outside and rain droplets starting. 

“And I told you that if my friends trust him then I do too! We’ve already had this discussion, and I’m tired of it! I’m going to find a place to sleep in the base.” You say snidely and walk down the ramp into the rain, getting your hair and clothes wet. You reach the ground and feel a grip on your forearm, turning you around.

“Get back on the ship!” you hear the modulator say through the rain. You turn and see the water running down his helmet, and the other pieces of his armor that it hits. His shirt and cape are getting soaked like your clothes.

“No, and you can’t make me,” you growl at him. Then he moves quickly, lifting you up over his shoulder, “Mando, put me down!” You yell and pound your fist on his back as he starts walking back up the ramp, “there is no way I’m sleeping next to you tonight.”

He gets back up to the cabin of the ship where rain is no longer falling on you, and lowers you down, pushing you against the wall and hits the button next to you to close the ramp. He puts his hand in a fist and rests it on the wall above your head, “Who said anything about sleeping?” He tilts his helmet and moves his body against yours, and you gasp, you can feel how hard he is on your hip.

You glance down, seeing the bulge of his pants against you, then you look back up at the visor, your breath fogging it from how close he is. 

“I won’t lose you to the Empire again,” he growls, slipping a gloved hand under your shirt and grabbing your breast. You can’t help but lean into his touch, and whimper. You are mad at him, but something about how he is acting right now is causing that warm wetness to start between your legs. The cold and wet beskar is against your body, the lights are on in the hull, “lights,” is all you let out. 

“No, you made it clear that I am not Din right now, so I’m going to fuck you as Mando,” he snaps through the modulator, and grinds his bulge against you, making you moan. He twists your nipple between his thumb and index finger before his hand leaves your beast and comes out from under your shirt. He brings it up to your mouth, “Bite,” he orders.

You do, biting the leather of the glove between your teeth and he pulls his hand out, “hold it there,” he demands. You keep the leather in your mouth, and his hand moves to your belt, his other hand dropping down from the wall to quicken the process. He undoes your belt and unbuttons your pants, he pulls your pants down with your underwear in one motion. You step out, kicking them off and to the side. Another crack of thunder goes off from outside. 

He presses his ungloved hand to your heat, “you’re so wet, something about this you like?” He asks as he starts moving his finger around your clit. You moan with his glove still in between your teeth.

“Good girl,” he says through the modulator in a low tone. He works you for a bit, making you come undone by his hand but never giving you enough to cum. You are so desperate for release, so desperate for his cock that is still straining against your hip, he only occasionally grinds into you. You still hold the glove in your mouth, it muffles your moans. You stare at the visor, only seeing your only reflection, but you know he is staring right back at you. He usually can’t see your facial expressions when he has you like this since it’s normally in the darkness. But he takes in every small movement of your face, savoring it. 

Before you even have time to process it, his hands move to your thighs and are lifting you up, you instinctively, wrap your legs around his waist, and his hands rest on your ass to hold you up against the wall. His cold beskar is flushed with your body. You move your hands to his belt, and quickly undo it and unbutton his pants, freeing his hard-on from the confines of his pants. He lifts you slightly, and you grab his cock to align him with yourself. 

He lowers you at the same time he forces his hips upward. You gasp at the intrusion, parting your lips and the glove falls from them.

“I didn’t say you could let go of it,” you hear him growl. 

“I’m sorry, I-I couldn’t help it,” you let out, and he pulls out and does a hard thrust back in, burying himself in you, and making you cry out, “Fuck! Mando, that cock feels so good.”

The helmet stares at you, he stays still, you roll your own hips on him. Then his ungloved hand leaves your ass and finds its way to your neck. He just rests it there, not squeezing, giving you a chance to tell him no and swat his hand away. You look at the slit of his helmet, biting your bottom lip, and you lean into his hand, and you hear him groan.

He squeezes his hand around your neck firmly, but not making it so you can’t breathe, and he finally starts a slow hard pace with his hips, taking in every expression that you make with your noises of pleasure. 

Between is cock and his hand around your neck, you feel your high building inside you. You moan and lean into his hand more, “Mando, I’m getting close,” you manage to say with his hand squeezing your neck. You hear his breaths through his modulator, and he quickens his pace with his hips, and tightens his hand a bit more, and you see the edges of your vision go white as your orgasm releases and all you can do is moan as you clench your walls around him. 

He groans at the sensation and his movements lose their rhythm, chasing his own orgasm. He does a few more hard thrusts and then stills inside you, he tightens his hand more, that you find a little difficulty in breathing, but you know it will only last a moment. All you hear is the rain hitting the top of the ship. Once the warm fluid from him is done, his hand goes limp around your neck and he takes a deep breath. 

He pulls himself out of you, and lowers you to the ground then tucks himself back into his pants. He then goes over and hits the lights, making darkness fill the hull, and then you feel his hand on your cheek and his lips pressing to yours, and then pulling away again. 

“I love you, and I won’t let the Empire take you again,”

  
  


* * *

  
  
  


You walk into the base in the morning, everyone is in the kitchen, they are discussing a possible mission. You expect Mando to say something to Kallus, but he stays silent.

“People on Lothal are being terrorized by the Empire again, we have to destroy the base they have there.” Ezra says to Hera. 

Chopper interjects some words, and Hera looks at him, “they have a battalion of stormtroopers there, it’s one of their main bases now. I don’t think we have the firepower to take them.”

“But they are Ezra’s people.” Sabine states.

“We’ll help,” you interrupt, Manda jerks his helmet at you, “surely another Jedi and Mandalorian would give you enough firepower right?”

Hera looks at Mando, then looks at you, “I think that could work.”

  
  



	18. Fight For Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He gets to you and kneels in front of you, “Red! Red, come on we have to go!” He yells through the wind, but your consciousness isn’t there, “Hey! Snap out of it!” He sees how the areas around your eyes are darkening, and the edges of your eyes are turning red. That’s when he realized what was happening, he remembered what you said about the dark-side taking root. You were letting it take you, you weren’t fighting it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello you lovely readers and Mando simps. This chapter may break a few of your hearts, just warning you.

“That was stupid of you to volunteer us to help them.” Mando says sternly when you two are alone in the kitchen. Ezra had taken Grogu, sensing that Mando was upset, and that you two needed to talk.

“They are my friends, and Lothal is Ezra’s home. They need us.” You say, not backing down.

“They said it’s one of the main imperial bases left. It’s too big of a risk for you, we aren’t going.” He orders. You raise an eyebrow.

“I can do what I want. You don’t have to come, you can stay here,” you retort.

“I’m not the one that is the Empire’s top target,” he reminds you through his modulator. 

You stare at him, you know arguing and yelling is going to be pointless with him, but maybe there is a way to explain it that he will understand. 

“Mando, in the old republic, Jedi were the peacekeepers. They fought for the oppressed. There are people being mistreated by the Empire and I have the chance to help them. I have my Jedi code just as you have your Mandalorian creed,” you explain to him, hoping that he will understand if you explain it this way. “It’s my duty as a Jedi.”

He leans back against the wall and sighs, sounding annoyed that you put it like that, “there’s nothing I can say to change your mind?” You shake your head. “Well I’m not letting you go without me, they may be your friends, but their first priority isn’t protecting you like mine is.”

  
  


…..

  
  


The crew readies the next two days for the mission, Hera is going to stay on the ship the whole time with Grogu, and wait for the group to contact her for an extraction. You get to theur hangar, you see the Ghost and you think about the missions you ran with them before. You also notice an X-wing in the hangar.

“What do you have that for?” You ask Zeb.

“Sometimes Ezra or Sabine do some small lone missions, so they take that,” he replies while carrying a supply crate into the Ghost. 

Mando walks out to the hangar, “this thing doesn’t look fast.”

“This ship has gotten them through hundreds of missions, it’s fast enough,” you reply. He is still on edge about the mission. You know he is just worried because he cares about you. 

You grab his hand, “everything is going to be fine,” a small upturn appears on your lips. 

“You don’t know that, Red.” he says, not in his normal tone, but in a soft and quiet one. “What if something happens and I can’t protect you?” 

“I’m not leaving your side during the mission, it will be okay,” you squeeze his hand and then let go, helping Zeb get the Ghost ready.

A few hours later everyone is boarding the Ghost, Sabine shows you, Mando and Grogu to a room to stay, Kanan’s old room. You wanted to ask what happened to him, but you also didn’t want to upset anyone. You make up a place for Grogu in the corner with some blankets. He walks over and climbs in, you smile when he looks up at you. O

“Go to sleep kiddo,” you say and then stand up, and remove your poncho from over your head, and unhook your saber from your belt and set them down. Mando had removed his armor and was waiting by the light. You lay in the bed, and the light goes out.

You can see the outline of his body walk towards the bed and see his arms lift up to remove his helmet. He sets it down on the ground and lowers himself onto the bed next to you, and his hands go to your waist and pull you closer to him. His nose is just barely touching yours, you can see the silhouette of his face, but no features, wishing you could look into those brown eyes, only knowing they are brown from the echo. You can feel him staring back at you, you sense an emotion coming off of him.

_Fear._

You bring a hand to his face, you feel him lean into your touch as he inhales a deep breath. You rub your thumb back and forth on his cheek. 

“It’s going to be okay,” you whisper, trying to calm him.

“I just have a bad feeling in my gut about all this,” his unmodulated voice says with unease. 

“We have two Jedi, two Mandalorians, a lasat, one of the best pilots, an ex-imperial commander, and the sassiest droid in the galaxy, we’ve faced worse.” You tell him.

You feel his hand come to your face, holding your cheek, so now you are both holding each other’s faces. “I would do anything to protect you. Before I met you, before I met the kid, I was just selfish and cared about myself” he starts, “but now,” his hand moves down to your shoulder and you feel his thumb glide across the necklace he had given you on Naboo, “you and the kid mean everything to me. You two are the only thing that mean anything to me. I would tear the galaxy apart to find you if anyone took you away from me.” 

In that moment you knew he wasn’t Mando. You knew he wasn’t the cold bounty hunter. He was Din. He was Din in his purest form. He was Din that was scared by the thought of losing you. He was Din, the scared little boy you saw in the echo. 

You lean your face forward, closing your eyes as you gently kiss him. You two stay like that for a minute, tenderly moving your lips together. Your hand on his cheek runs back through his hair, resting on the back of his neck with your fingers entwined in the hair at the base of his head.

You break the kiss, playing with his hair where your fingers are, “I’m right here with you, and I’m not going anywhere. I love you, Din,” you say and press your forehead to his. 

“I love you too.”

  
  


* * *

  
  
  


When the ship comes out of hyperspace at Lothal, you immediately feel a disturbance in the force. It weighs down on you, crashing like a wave, almost like you can’t even breath as the emotion drowns you. You look at Ezra, he looks the same as you do, so you know he feels it too. He looks over at you.

“You feel that too?” He questions.

You nod and Mando turns his helmet to you, “feel what?”

“The force here, it’s overpowering with emotions. Pain...fear...anger...hatred” you list off, and Ezra chimes in, “suffering.” 

You look to him and he continues, “something dark in the force is here.” 

You see Mando sit up, tensing, “I knew this was a bad idea.” 

“We are already here, we are going through with the plan. We’ll scout out the base before we make any movements.” You respond, and you hear him sigh, knowing fighting you on this will be useless.

Sabine interjects, “we’ll be on high alert.”

Hera lands the ship far enough away from the base to not be noticed by the Empire. Everyone grabs their weapons, you and Ezra hook your lightsabers at the same time. Mando kneels down to Grogu, “be good for Hera, we’ll be back soon.” The kid coos at him and tilts his head. Mando stands up and takes a step towards you, “ _please_ , stay close to me.” You nod, agreeing to stay near him is the least you can do to give his mind some ease. 

You, Mando, Ezra, Kallus, Sabine, and Zeb descend the ramp of the Ghost and trek your way towards the base, stopping behind the last ridge until it’s a clear shot there. You all lay down, Sabine and Mando use their helmets to magnify their vision of the base.

“There’s two entrances in the fence on either side, stormtroopers patrolling outside,” Mando states.

“And some TIE-fighters are stationed on the ground, we’ll need to take those out so they can’t follow us.” 

“Remember the goal is just to take out the weapons in the airfield that they can’t terrorize the people of Lothal anymore. Zeb you have the charges?” Ezra questions.

“Of course I do.” Zeb replies.

“Our best course of action will be to split into two groups, each placing charges on either side of the base.” Mando explains to the group.

Ezra nods, “Kallus, Sabine and I will take the left entrance, you, y/n, and Zeb take the right.” he says while looking at Mando.

“Try to take out stormtroopers quietly if you can, the less attention we draw, the better.” Mando tells the group.

“Let’s get down there then,” you say.

You make your way to the right entrance with Mando and Zeb. There’s a watchtower on the outside that you sneak up behind. You force jump your way up and go behind the stormtrooper there, and you wrap your arm around his neck and then flip him off the railing, letting him fall to the ground. You jump back down to Mando and Zeb. 

“Nicely done,” Zeb whispers and Mando gives you a nod. 

You three make your way inside the fence and take cover behind one of the TIE fighters, Zeb places a charge on it. 

“We have two more TIE’s to hit and then that cache of weapons over there,” comes through the modulator of the beskar helmet. 

“I’ll get that TIE, Zeb you get the other, and Mando you get the weapons,” you order. Mando quickly turns his head to you. 

“No, the weapons are on the other side of the field, I’m not getting that far from you.” He argues with your plan. 

“I’ll get the weapons, you two get the TIE’s.” Zeb interrupts to stop the argument from being drawn out. Mando nods his helmet to that. Zeb hands you each a charge and you and Mando run to the TIE’s, you run to yours and stick the charge to it. Once it’s set you turn to run back, but a stormtrooper had walked in between the two TIE’s. Mando puts his hand up and shakes his head at you. He then shoots out his forearm cord, wrapping it around the troopers legs and pulls him onto the ground and over to him. He puts the trooper in a choke hold until he stops struggling.

You look around to make sure no other stormtroopers are around before you run over to him. He places a gloved hand on your cheek and you look at the visor. He then pulls your hand away and you make your way back. Zeb meets up with you, but then you hear blaster fire on the other side of the base. Something must have gone wrong with Ezra, Sabine and Kallus. 

“Time to leave.” Mando says and you exit out the fence and run back to the ridge where you had scouted. You see the other three also running, Sabine and Kallus shooting their blasters back, and Ezra deflecting shots behind him as he runs. There’s stormtroopers running after all of you. You grab your saber and ignite the green light, helping to deflect the shots at you, Mando and Zeb.

“Zeb! Blow it!” Sabine yells. Zeb grabs the detonator and presses the button. You hear multiple explosions go off around the base. You all run back to the Ghost, hearing Sabine radio to Hera to get the engines going. You run next to Mando, you can see the Ghost in the distance, but you see an imperial transport ship fly over head, it lands and you all keep running past it. 

The ramp of the transport opens, and you hear your name shouted. You turn your head and immediately stop dead in your tracks and turn your body. One the ramp of the imperial ship stand a familiar figure, pale skin, orange hair….Cal. 

Cal was standing there. 

He was wearing black clothes with the Empire insignia. There were dark shadows around his eyes. 

Cal was an Inquisitor. 

Mando notices you weren’t right behind him anymore and turns and calls out, “what are you doing!?”

But you don’t register his words, all you can do is stare at your first love….the shell of a man that was your first love. 

And in that moment, you felt yourself leave reality. You felt something deep inside you snap. You let out a blood-curdling scream and fall to your knees, and unleashing a wave of chaos. A sandstorm starts around you, pushing back everything around you. The crew and Mando get blown back. In the wake of energy, your saber shatters in your hand. 

You stay on your knees, disconnected from reality as the storm around you rages. 

* * *

  
  
  


Mando pushes himself off the ground, he landed next to Ezra, he yells out to you, but you can’t hear him.

Ezra pushes himself off the ground, covering his face from the sand, “we have to get to her!” Ezra yells to him and tries to walk towards you, but the force of the wind is too strong. 

Mando activates the boot grounders he had bought back on Nevarro, and starts to slowly make his way toward you. He can barely see you as he approaches from behind you. Each step he takes is deliberate, lifting his foot and lunging forward and stabbing the blade on the bottom into the ground. His cape adds resistance in the wind. 

He gets to you and kneels in front of you, “Red! Red, come on we have to go!” He yells through the wind, but your consciousness isn’t there, “Hey! Snap out of it!” He sees how the areas around your eyes are darkening, and the edges of your eyes are turning red. That’s when he realized what was happening, he remembered what you said about the dark-side taking root. You were letting it take you, you weren’t fighting it. 

“Look at me! Fight this, Red!” He places his hands on your shoulders, he couldn’t lose you to this. He had to bring you back to reality. 

In that moment, he knew what he had to do. He didn’t care about his creed, he cared about you. He moves his hands to his helmet and rips it off his head, his brown hair blowing as he is showing you his face.

He takes your face in his hands, and instead of yelling he says in a caring voice, “look at me, look right at me. I’m here with you. You can fight the dark-side, if not for yourself, then for me. Fight for me and Grogu.” 

Something in you registers his face. _Din’s_ _face_. You return to reality, and dart your eyes to him, “Din…” you softly let out.

“It’s me, I’m right here with you.” He says.

You look around at the storm you have created. You close your eyes and contain yourself. The storm starts to dissipate. Din leans his forehead on yours, “there’s my girl.”

You suddenly feel weak and tired, your collapse into his body and pass out. 

Din picks you up, he is hanging onto his helmet with a few fingers as he holds you and moves quickly to the Ghost. The rest of the crew start firing back at the Empire when they start to advance again. He gets you up the ramp,and everyone follows in behind. 

Ezra yells, “Hera, go!” and the Ghost takes off. 

Din stands there holding you, unhelmeted with everyone in the hull. No one says anything to him. He takes you to the room you two were staying in, closing the door behind him and lays you on the bed. He runs his hand across your forehead. 

“There’s no creed I wouldn’t break for you.”

  
  
  
  
  



	19. Conflict

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “On Lothal, when the darkness had a hold of you, I told you to fight for me and Grogu, and you did. You came back out of the dark,” his hand cups your jaw, “you came back to me.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello you lovely readers and Mando simps! I hope you enjoy this chapter, I honestly can't wait to write the next one!

You awake in hyperspace, alone in the room. You shoot straight up to a sitting position. You’re exhausted from the amount of power you used on Lothal. 

The amount of power you unleashed from the dark-side because you didn’t contain your emotions.

You’re emotions upon seeing Cal.

The pain and anger you felt upon seeing Cal as an Inquisitor. 

Darth Vader hadn’t killed him, but made him an inquisitor. Cal couldn’t fight it. He gave in. Your best friend, your first love, was an inquisitor for the Empire. What had they done to him to make him give in to the darkside? Cal had been the strongest person you knew, he seemed like he didn’t ever struggle with the darkside before, that being good was just his nature. 

You lean back against the wall while sitting on the bed. 

You had given into the darkside. It was rooted in you now, you can feel its presence. You almost became everything you had always fought to not be. You just let the darkside in with an open door when you saw Cal standing on the imperial transport in inquisitor clothing. You didn’t even have your saber anymore, it was destroyed.

You hadn’t even known Cal was alive all these years. You would have gone back for him if you had known. He was an inquisitor because you failed him. 

_ This was your fault. _

If you had been better, stronger, maybe you would have sensed he was still alive and could have prevented this fate for him. 

You start hyperventilating. You should have been there, he loved you, he was only with the Empire because he had saved you. This was your fault. This was all your fault. You feel the water swell in your eyes and start streaming down your cheeks. You felt guilt. Guilt that you weren’t there for Cal, guilt that you hadn’t saved him, guilt that you let the darkside plant itself in you. 

Then the door slides open, but you don’t bother to look, but quickly Mando appears in front of you. 

“Red, hey, breathe, you need to breathe,” his hands go to your shoulders. You hear his words, but you can’t stop the rapid pace of your breaths. He pulls off his helmet, the light is on in the room, you can see his face, you had seen before when he brought you back to your senses on Lothal.

He sits in front of you on the bed and pulls you into his lap, pulling your head to his chest against the cold beskar of his chestplate. One of his hands strokes your hair and kisses the top of your head repeatedly.

He hushes you comfortingly and just holds you against him until you manage to calm down.

“Y-Your helmet…,” you quietly whisper against him through your silent tears. 

“You are more important to me than any creed, and I want you to see me,” he answers quietly. You lift your head to look at him through your teared blurry vision. You look at  _ him. _ His tan skin, his brown curly hair, his soft lips, and his brown eyes. You gently touch your fingertips to his cheek and run them down to his lips. He kisses them. You manage to smile through your tears, “Din.”

He returns your smile and kisses the tears on each cheek, “get some more rest, I know you need it.” 

* * *

  
  


When you arrive back at Dantooine, you’ve had more time to think about what happened, what you did. You let the dark-side in. How could you face anyone? How could Din still want you? When you land in the hangar you quickly make your way to the Gem and go to the bedroom, closing the door behind you and locking it. You couldn’t talk to anyone, you couldn’t take the judgement and the looks. 

Minutes later you hear someone trying to open the door.

“Open the door,” you hear the modulated voice. You stay quiet, laying on the bed, facing the door. “Red, come on, I don’t really understand everything you are going through, but Ezra explained enough and you shouldn’t be alone.” He waits to see if you’ll reply, then you hear him sigh and then a thud at the bottom of the door, “I can wait, Hera is watching Grogu, and you have to come out eventually,” his voice now unmodulated. 

You both stay where you are in silence. You don’t know how much time has passed when his deep voice suddenly says, “Ezra told me that was Cal, the man on the imperial transport,” you don’t say anything, you just roll over in the bed so your back is to the door. 

“You’ve told me how important Cal was to you, it couldn’t have been easy seeing him with the Empire. I know nothing I say is going to make it better.” The concern in his voice is strong, “I don’t know what you are feeling, but closing yourself off….shutting me out isn’t going to help,” he states through the door. You want him to hold you more than anything else in the galaxy right now, but with darkness now rooted in you, you shouldn’t be close to anyone.

“You remember when we were on Naboo?” he says changing the subject and you can hear him taking off his armor, “when you were playing with Grogu by the water, and I sat and watched you both?” He starts telling you through the door, “I knew in that moment that both of you were everything to me, that both of you were my purpose in life.” 

You start to tear up listening to his words. You don’t deserve him, not after you had broken so easily, not after you had been so weak.

But he continues on, “and then I gave you the necklace and made love to you. And I promised that I would always be there, and that I wanted to be the one you went to when you were angry, sad, happy, or scared,” he pauses before his next statement. “Let me keep that promise to you.  _ Please _ open the door. Let me be there for you.” 

You feel the tears escape your eyes, you roll back over to face the door, you hit the unlock button. Din must have heard because he stood up and pressed the button to slide the door open. He looks at you with his brown eyes with a caring look. His armor is all gone, he is just in his clothes. He lays down on the bed next to you, wrapping his arms around you, holding you tight to him. 

“You shouldn’t want me anymore. I was weak, and I used the dark-side, it might only get worse,” you quietly sob. 

“You told me you resisted the dark-side before because you thought about Cal and used that to fight it,” he says in an argument of your statement. “You resisted the dark-side before because you are  _ strong. _ You can fight it again.”

“I never let it in before though. Now I have it embedded in me,” you say back.

His hand goes to your chin, tilting it up to look at him. You stare at his face, still feeling like you shouldn’t be able to see it.

“On Lothal, when the darkness had a hold of you, I told you to fight for me and Grogu, and you did. You came back out of the dark,” his hand cups your jaw, “you came back to me.” 

He presses his lips to yours. You crave his kiss like it’s the only thing in the galaxy and can calm you right now. You bring your hand to his cheek and you both lay there and tenderly move your lips in sync. 

* * *

  
  


Later Din comes back from in the base with some food for both of you. You still weren’t ready to face everyone else. He puts your plate on the table as you sit in the booth, he sits across from you and takes off his helmet. He’s so casual about it, just taking his helmet off in front of you. He starts eating and even that amazes you since you have never actually watched him eat. 

“You need to eat,” he interrupts your thoughts as you are staring at him. You pick up the fork and take a few bites, still glancing up at him. Your favorite feature is his eyes. Dark brown, with a soft demeanor, but also mysterious, like he was when you had first met him. He had a mustache but you knew that because you could feel it in the darkness whenever you touched his face or kissed him. It was just different now that you can see it. He had a strong jawline, which seemed fitting for him. His brown curly hair was messy from the helmet, but framed him perfectly. 

He was perfect.

You get up and go over to his side of the both and sit in his lap, straddling his hips. You wanted to see his facial expressions when you make him feel good. 

He gives you a questioning look. You put your palms on his chest and lean in and kiss him. He moves his mouth against yours, you part your lips and his tongue dances with his. You start grind your hips against him, getting him to understand what you are doing. 

He groans into your mouth as he starts to harden in his pants. You move your lips from his mouth to his jawline, kissing along it until you get to the hollow spot by his ear and suck on the skin there. He moans, his hands going to your hips helping you grind on him and you can now feel his erection through his pants. 

You remove your mouth from his skin and slowly slide yourself down from his lap to the floor under the table. You unbuckle his belt and undo his pants. You reach in and free his straining cock and wrap your hand around the base. You look up at him and he is sitting there, looking at you with anticipation in his eyes, and his lips slightly parted.

You lick the tip, tasting the precum there and his eyes immediately shut and his head goes back when you do. You swirl your tongue around his head and watch as a gasping moan escapes him. You then focus your attention to his cock and take his full length in your mouth, feeling him hit the back of your throat. A hand goes to your hair and tangles itself there. You start bobbing your head along him, pressing your tongue flat against the vein on the bottom and having your hand follow your head, and twist slightly.

“Fuck!” He yells and you look up, his head is still back, eyes closed and lips parted, and a series of moans from pleasure leave him. The hand in your hair tightens its grip. 

You slide your hand back further to his balls, gently massaging them and rolling them in your hand. His hips buck up, making you gag slightly. 

“S-Sorry, you’re just….so fucking good with that mouth,” he groans. 

You respond by taking him as deep as you possibly can, your nose touches the hair at his base. He head shoots forward so he can look at you. You hollow your cheeks while looking at him, and slowly drag your mouth back down him. You take your hand from his balls and put it back as his base and give him a few strokes.

“I’m getting close,” he breaths and squeezes the back of your head. You give a few more bobs of your head until he is shaking then you take him out of your mouth and stroke him with your hand, keeping your mouth open in front of him. Soon he yells out with his head going back and you feel the bead of fluid land on your tongue as you continue to move your hand, letting him ride out his orgasm. 

You swallow all the fluid that shot onto your tongue and his head comes forward again. You tuck him back into his pants and button them. You crawl back up into his lap, “I love seeing all the expressions I cause you to have.” 

* * *

  
  
  


You try doing some meditation with Grogu the next morning, trying to focus on calming your emotions. But the memory of Cal standing on the ramp of that transport and wearing inquisitor clothing creeps into the front of your mind and you feel your emotions start to rise. You quickly break your focus and land on the ground hard. You open your eyes and see Grogu’s big ones staring at you with his head tilted. 

You sigh and pick him up, “I don’t know what to do now, and maybe I shouldn’t train you.” He reaches up and puts his hand on your face and closes his eyes. You can feel him telling you that it’s okay. You smile slightly. 

You thought about Cere. She had once used the darkside and then cut herself off from the force. She reconnected with it to help Cal when they had first met. Cere was strong, and so were you. You could do this. You could still be a Jedi, you’ll just have to be stronger than you were before. 

And you know exactly where you need to start. 

….

You walk into the base, Mando is speaking with Ezra in the coms room, they both turn and look at you. 

You walk over to them, “if I’m going to get past this, then I’m going to have to repair my connection with the force.”

Ezra looks at you, “you’re sure about that?” 

“I am, I have to face it head on.” You reply.

“What are you two talking about?” Mando chimes in, clueless. You both look at him.

“I have to get a new kyber crystal.”

  
  



	20. Balanced

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Din, this is how it’s done, no weapons, no radios, nothing” you say while gently taking the blaster from his hand, and setting it back down. “It’s something I must do on my own, it’s how the force tests me in the caves. The force uses your fears against you to see what truly lies in a Jedi’s heart. I will see illusions that I won’t be able to tell what’s real and what isn’t.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello you lovely readers and Mando simps! Surprise 2nd chapter in one day!

You sit in the cockpit with Mando, Grogu sitting on your lap. You are on your way to Ilum. Ilum is the home of the kyber caves. There you’ll be able to get a kyber crystal. You had taken parts from the crew’s base to be able to construct your saber when you were done.

Mando had never heard of Ilum or kyber crystals, which didn’t surprise you. You explained to him that the Ilum was the only place kyber crystals were, and that they are what powers a lightsaber. You go on to tell him how going there was a tradition for younglings when they came of age. You went as a youngling with Grand Master Yoda when you were ten years old. You had been the only youngling to come of age to do so. You remember how the force tested you. Tempting you to give into your desires to fail. 

He hums to your explanations. You hear the ship beep, meaning you are almost coming out of hyperspace. Mando gets ready to take control of the ship, and hits the switch to disengage the hyperdrive. The ship jolts and in front of you is the white frozen planet, that you haven’t seen since the first time you were there. 

“Great, it’s an ice planet,” Mando says sarcastically through his modulator. You roll your eyes and laugh. The planet was cold, most of the time blizzards raged there. But you mapped out the time, the ice wall to the caves should be just starting to melt when you get land. 

Mando flies to the coordinates of the planet you had put in.

“There’s the cave,” You say and point it out to him. He flies over and finds a flat place to land a few yards away. You leave the cockpit and set Grogu on the bench at the table. You throw your poncho on over your head. You thought about Cal, this was his poncho, should you still wear it? He’s...hunting you now. 

No, the 12th brother is hunting you. 

The Cal you know isn’t. And this was his poncho. 

Mando walks out from the cockpit and grabs his blaster.

“No, you aren’t coming with,” you tell him. He jerks his helmet over at you. 

“I’m not letting you go into freezing weather, alone in a cave, without a weapon,” he plainly states. 

“Din, this is how it’s done, no weapons, no radios, nothing” you say while gently taking the blaster from his hand, and setting it back down. “It’s something I must do on my own, it’s how the force tests me in the caves. The force uses your fears against you to see what truly lies in a Jedi’s heart. I will see illusions that I won’t be able to tell what’s real and what isn’t.” 

“So I’m supposed to just sit here while you could be deep in the cave, hallucinating and hurt?” He retorts back to you.

“Some Jedi have died in these caves because they give into their fears and desires, leaving them lost and stranded,” you explain, “that could happen to me, but if I pass the forces test, I’ll be fine.”

“I’ll give you three hours, you said the entrance stays melted for four hours, if you aren’t back in three then I’m going in to find you.” He says protectively. 

“You would just get lost, these caves...change. They are meant for only force-sensitive people to navigate,” you try to explain to him. 

He grabs your waist and pulls you back to where Grogu can’t see and pulls off his helmet and slams his lips onto yours, roughly for a long moment. When his lips finally leave yours he whispers, “find your way back,  _ please.” _

“That’s the goal,” you say with another quick kiss on his lips and then you go and open the ramp. He puts his helmet back on walks over. You feel the cold air on your face. There’s no blizzard right now which makes things easier. You leave the ramp and head towards the cave. Eventually hear the ramp close up as you are walking away. 

You get to the mouth of the entry cavern and enter. You look at the ice wall and see the side of it has melted just enough for you to squeeze through if you turn your body sideways. You slide through the rock wall and the ice, entering the kyber caves. You can feel how present the force is here. 

Not light, not dark, but perfectly balanced.

You begin your journey, walking further into the cave, luminescent crystals that light up the tunnel to see, but they aren’t kyber crystals, you look for any sign to guide you while you walk further. You get to a fork in the tunnels, you look down each one, unsure which to take. You close your eyes, trying to feel any call of a crystal. Then you choose the tunnel on the right. You can feel your body starting to get cold, you fold your arms over each other, to keep them close to your body. 

You end up at a dead end except for a small body of water that continued under the dead end. 

You take a deep breath, you knew the water was warm from when you were here as a youngling. There’s underwater heat geysers that emit warmth to the water. It was when you get out of the water that’s the dangerous part. Being wet in freezing temperatures quickly lowers your body heat.

You look at the pool in front of you and dive in. The geysers also lit up the water, allowing you to see. The heat felt good, but you know that would be short lived. You swim your way through the water, you feel your need for air, you can see the surface of the water at the next open space. You hurriedly make your way there and emerge, inhale a deep breath of cold air as you do. 

You grab the edge and pull yourself out of the water, laying on the ground. And the cold instantly hits you. You have to keep moving now or you’ll freeze to death. You push yourself off the ground and look at your surroundings. There’s no path, just a wall that has ledges just big enough for you to grab. 

“Up it is,” you say to yourself and walk over to the wall and begin to climb it. You find it harder to move as your bones are feeling cold now, your hand slips on a hold and it breaks off the wall,and you let out a yell, you force pull yourself up with the one hand still on the wall to grab the next hold that is too far up to reach without the assistance of the force.

You see a red glow at the top of the wall, you need to get up there and find what it is. You climb the rest of the way up and hook your hands on the top ledge and pull yourself up. You look up to see what the glow was. 

You see Din.

Din is on a knee and Cal is standing over him with his double-sided inquisitor blade, about to strike. 

You act instinctively to protect Din.

“No!,” shoot yourself forward, getting in front of Din and extend your hand, force pushing Cal’s blade, stopping its motion. He increases the pressure on his blade and you extend your other hand and force push him back. 

Cal stands up straight, looks at you, his eyes are no longer blue, they’re redo n the outside and yellow as they go in, “I was wondering when you would show. I arrived as I saw him running into the caves.” 

“Cal, this isn’t you!” you yell at him.

“On the contrary, I feel more like myself than ever before,” He throws his red blade at you, Din pushes you out of the way and uses his beskar spear to block it. 

Cal force pulls it back to him, and Din charges him. “Din! Wait!” you yell, but he ignores you. He and Cal fight, Cal has the advantage of the force, but Din is using his accessories to help him. You don’t have a weapon and don’t want to get caught in the middle. 

Din manages to knock Cal off his feet by shooting his cord around Cal’s legs and hits his saber out of his hand. He goes to stab the spear at Cal, but you find yourself grabbing it as he does, pushing back against him. Cal may be an inquisitor, but he is also your best friend, and you do love him. His helmet jerks up at you, “What are you doing?!” 

“You can’t kill him!” you yell back. 

Cal takes his chance to force push Din back, he slams against a wall. Cal gets up. 

“Y/n, you can come with me. After seeing your power on Lothal, the Empire could use you. We could be together again, like old times,” he extends his hand out to you.

Like old times.

For a second part of you wants to reach for his hand, part of you wants to hug him and feel him alive and breathing. Your best friend and first love was alive. You look up at him, seeing his dark-sided eyes, you knew it wouldn’t be like old times. Cal wasn’t the same. He isn’t the Cal you loved. 

You turn your head over to see Din getting back up, imagining his face under the helmet. You love the man under the helmet.

You look back to Cal, “no Cal, I’ll never become what you allowed yourself to become.”

“I had really wished you hadn’t said that” he then force pulls his saber back to him and ignites it. You feel Din’s cord wrap around your waist and pull you back, making Cal’s strike barely miss you. You fall back on your butt as Din and Cal engage in combat again. 

You quickly get to your feet and go up between them and extend a hand toward each one and force push them apart on either side of the cavern. 

“Stop!” you scream out, “you can’t hurt each other without hurting me!” 

They both stand up straight and then they are gone.

They had been an illusion. 

It then goes dark in the cavern and you fall to your knees. You feel how cold you suddenly are, when you notice your eyelashes have frosted over and your lip feels cracked. 

You are in the dark alone and cold, wishing for nothing more than Din’s arms to pick you up and take you back to the Hidden Gem. 

Then you see it, over in the wall of the cavern, a glow of a light. 

_ A Kyber Crystal. _

You will yourself to crawl your way over there, hearing your bones and joints crack. You reach out and grab the glowing clear crystal, engulfing it in your fist. You feel it connect with you and the clear glow disappears. You open your fist and you don’t see a green crystal like your last one.

In your hand lies a purple crystal.

You know from your teachings in the temple what purple indicates. Only one master had a purple crystal, Master Mace Windu. 

A purple crystal means you know both the light and dark sides of the force. Which you did have the dark-side in you since Lothal. 

Maybe you aren’t meant to be light or dark.

Maybe you are meant to be perfectly balanced. 

  
  



	21. Both

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I...I saw you and...Cal fighting,” you quietly let out, pausing to take a breath, “you were trying to kill each other, the force was testing me to choose one of you.” He shifts his body and glances away, you can tell he is thinking about his next question.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello you lovely readers and Mando simps. We get some more sweet Din in this chapter, I love writing sweet and fluffy Din.

You put the purple crystal into your pocket, and look for a way out. You are far too cold to go back the way you came. You need to get back though, you can feel yourself getting tired from the cold meaning your body temperature is dropping. It doesn’t help that your hair and clothes are both frozen from having gone through the water. 

You scan the cavern, you see a crevasse through the wall that you should be able to fit through. You force yourself to your feet, your joints ache as you stand and walk over. Sliding through the crevasse with your body sideways. You didn’t even know how long you had been in the caves. Was the wall still melted? You pick up your place and get to the clearing of another tunnel. You go as fast as you can while feeling your body starting to shut down. 

Eventually you find your way to the wall, there was still enough unfrozen to easily get through. You walk through and stand in the entry cavern. You had been able to see the Gem from here before, but now a blizzard stormed, whitening the field of vision. 

Taking a deep breath you step out into the storm, the harsh wind chilling you even more and nearly knocking you over. 

You think you can see the outline of the ship through the storm, but then a strong, unrelenting wind pushes you off your feet, you roll into the snow. Your eyelids feel heavy. 

_No, I have to keep going...I-I can’t stop….get up._

You think as you are closing your eyes and giving into the fatigue you feel. 

  
  


….

  
  


Mando sat on the ship after you had left. He kept the kid entertained while occasionally going to the cockpit to look to see if you were on your way back out. The kid was happy just going back and forth with the ball, using his powers to retrieve it from Mando. Mando noticed how the kid was able to do a lot more with his powers before getting tired, the trip to Tython must have actually worked.

A blizzard started outside. Mando checked his timer he had set when you left, three hours and fifteen minutes had gone by. Dank farrik, you only had forty-five minutes left. He started to worry more. What if you had gotten hurt and couldn’t move? What if whatever the force was making you see sent you into an emotional panic? What if you became hypothermic? The temperatures were starting to drop. He wanted to run in after you, but you had told him only force users could navigate the caves. He also couldn’t just leave Grogu, if Mando became trapped in the caves as well then Grogu would be stranded alone.

She’ll make it out, she has to. He told himself this over and over to calm his nerves. He noticed Grogu starting to blink more, looking sleepy. 

“Come on kid, time for a nap,” he picks him up and puts him into his bed in the closet and closes the door. Mando walks up and sits in a seat in the cockpit and looks through the blizzard, hoping to see you come through the white cloud.

He notices a small outline of something on the ground, then he can make it out, it was you. You were lying on the ground in the blizzard. He immediately gets up and runs to open the ramp. Even he can feel the bite of the cold through his armor and clothes. He runs out over to you.

“Red! Hey, wake up!” He shouts and shakes your shoulder. Your skin was pale, and your lips were blue. He had to get you out of the cold, he had to get you warm. 

He picks you up and takes you back to the ship and closes the ramp. He takes you to the fresher and turns on the shower. He starts stripping your clothes off, “stay with me, come on!” he says worried. Once you are stripped to your underwear, he lifts you up and sits you into the shower under the warm spray of water.

He then proceeds to take off his armor, to be able to get you more heat from his own body. He strips until he is left in his underwear. He then opens the door to the shower and sets himself behind you, placing his legs on either side of you. The water making his hair flatten on his forehead as he pulls you back against him, so that your back is lying against his chest and wraps his arms around you. Your skin is still cold against him, and he can’t feel you breathing. He moves two fingers to your carotid artery to feel for a pulse. It’s weak and slow, but it’s there.

He holds you there in the spray of the warm water, his head resting on your shoulder and occasionally placing a tender kiss on your shoulder and neck. His own heart is racing in his chest. He’s worried that you aren’t going to wake up, that he got to you too late.

No he isn’t worried.

_He’s scared_.

Fear was an emotion he tried to not let himself feel. Fear makes you panic and act irrational, so it wasn’t a good trait for a Mandalorian bounty hunter. He faced danger all time, if he allowed himself to feel scared it could get him killed. He had been scared when you and Grogu had been taken by Moff Gideon, but wouldn’t ever admit that.

But right now, in this moment of holding your cold body to him under the warm water of the shower, he was scared, and he knew it. He was scared you wouldn’t wake up. He was scared your pulse would only get weaker. He was scared you would be gone. He was scared you would leave him.

He took a deep breath, feeling water in his eyes, and it wasn’t from the shower. He hadn’t cried since he was a child, but the fear of losing you was enough to break that streak. He feels some of the water escape his eyes, the shower washing the tears away, but they were still there, _he had still shed them_.

He kisses your shoulder again, “stay with me, I need you” he whispers against your skin. 

After what seems like forever, your body starts to feel warmer in the water. He reaches his fingers up to your neck again to feel the throb of your blood vessel. It’s stronger and faster now, but still not as much as it should be. He can feel you breathing against him, and the color is returning to your face and lips. 

He lets out a sigh of relief and kisses the hair on the side of your head. He stays there for a few more moments before he gets up, gently laying you against the shower wall. He grabs the towel and dries himself off and goes to the bedroom, taking off his soaked underwear and gets himself a part of dry ones and pants, deciding against a shirt to be able to provide his body heat better in the bed. He grabs some dry underwear for you, setting them on the bed and returns to the fresher. 

He turns off the water and kneels down to dry off what he can of you, and take off your underwear. Normally he would be ravishing the sight of you like this, but he wasn’t. Right now you needed him to take care of you, there was nothing sexual about you being naked like this. He lifts you out of the wet shower and carries you to the bedroom. 

He places the dry underwear on you and then moves you into your place on the bed, he slides in right next to you, he looks at your necklace as he pulls you into his chest. _He is always going to be there._ He can feel your breath on him, a good thing. 

He pulls the blanket up to your shoulders. He kisses the top of your head as he holds you there and lets sleep overtake him.

* * *

  
  
  


Din’s face is the first thing you see when you wake, you smile slightly still amazed every time you see his face, but then remember the last place you were. You had been out in the blizzard, how did you end up in the bed with Din? 

He must have seen you and brought you to the ship. You’re thankful, you would be dead if you had stayed out in that blizzard. You lean your head in to tenderly kiss his lips, you feel him shift and then he is eagerly kissing you back.

You pull away from the kiss as his hand finds your cheek, “don’t ever scare me like that again, Red,” he says with a shaky voice, “I thought you were going to die on me.”

You realize he must have been talking about finding you out in the blizzard, freezing to death. You look at him, and the look on his face...he was scared. He truly thought you were gone. 

“I’ll try not to, but thank you for getting me back here,” you respond, grateful to have him, grateful to have someone that cares about you so much. 

“What happened to you in there?” his voice questions. You think back to when you came over the ledge, seeing him and Cal fighting, you snap back to him when you hear his voice again, “what kind of test did you have?”

“I...I saw you and...Cal fighting,” you quietly let out, pausing to take a breath, “you were trying to kill each other, the force was testing me to choose one of you.” He shifts his body and glances away, you can tell he is thinking about his next question.

He looks back at you, “and...who did you choose?” He says in a voice that says he hopes it’s him, but will accept the other answer.

You bring your hand to the back of his neck and run your fingers through the hair at the base of his scalp. 

“I chose both of you,” you say while looking straight into his eyes, “you both mean so much to me, I love both of you. This 12th brother isn’t Cal, not the Cal I knew. When I looked at him I saw the Cal I knew, and I couldn’t let you kill him.” You tell him and he nods.

“But I also couldn’t let him kill you. I do love Cal, but I’m _in_ _love with you_ , Din. I would never allow anything to happen to you,” his face softens at your confession. It was true, you will always love Cal, but it was different from how you felt about Din. You were in love with Din and nothing would ever change that.

He brushes your hair out of your face, his hand coming back then to rest on your jaw as he pulls you in for another kiss. You move to lay on top of him, when he breaks the kiss, and you rest your head on his chest and close your eyes, listening to his strong heartbeat. He lets out a relaxed sigh and runs his hand through your hair. 

* * *

  
  
  


Din put the Gem into hyperspace, your course set for Nevarro, you needed credits, you couldn’t keep relying on the crew to provide for you. But they said you would always be welcome there whenever you needed it. 

While Din was in the cockpit with Grogu, you worked on building a saber at the table. You had grabbed some supplies from Dantooine. 

You set the purple crystal down as you worked with the metal scraps. You mold everything together, welding whatever pieces you need to adjust, you place the crystal in its chamber and sealing it. Something was missing you thought. It was a complete hilt, but it wasn’t you. Not yet. 

You get an idea, you unhook the eight-pointed star necklace from your neck and grab the welder.

When you finish, Din walks in from the cockpit and sets the kid down on the bench and opens him a ration. 

“All done?” he asks through the modulator. 

You nod. He grabs it and takes a look, stopping when he sees the star on the end of the hilt, staying quiet.

“I wanted to make it more...me. That lightsaber is my life, and I wanted to put a piece of you in it,” you say shyly.

You can’t see it, but a smile appears on his face as he runs his gloved fingers over the star, “I like it.”

A smile appears on your face as you take the saber back, standing up and stepping back. You hit the switch to ignite it, seeing the purple glow from the blade appearing in front of you. Mando and Grogu both stare at it.

“It’s...purple,” he says, sounding confused. 

“Kyber crystals connect with their wielder, becoming the color of the force that fits them,” you state.

“But your last one was green,” he plainly says, still not understanding.

“My last one I obtained when I was a child, the one I had before...before Lothal,” you breathe out. “The color of the crystal reflects the force within the person. Green means one is strong in the lightside of force and values keeping the peace. Purple means the person knows both the dark and light sides, staying balanced between them.” You turn off the blade.

He nods, now understanding you. 

“How long till we reach Nevarro?” You ask, changing the subject.

“About a day, we’ll need to fuel up and then I’ll speak with Karga to get some bounties.”

  
  
  
  



	22. Hunted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Looks like the Empire might have had a bounty hunter waiting here for us.” He states and starts doing evasive maneuvers with the ship. But the ship behind keeps shooting and following, you feel the ship get hit. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello you lovely readers and Mando simps! getting back into the bounty business and the smutty business.

You go with Mando to the cantina upon arrival at Nevarro, Mando talks with Karga.

“That last bounty would have been a lot of money,” Karga lets out with a condescending tone.

“He’s a friend,” you retort. 

“Alright, alright,” he puts his hands up in surrender. “You should know though, some imperial imps came here to put in a bounty for you. I refused them, but that doesn’t mean they can’t find a non-guild hunter to take the job.”

“I’ll tear the arms off of any hunter that goes after her,” the modulated voice next to you chimes in. 

The man across the table nods, “I’m just letting you know, the Empire wants her, desperately, they had the highest bounty payout I’ve ever seen.”

You tense up, why does the Empire want you that much? Why does Thrawn or Cal want you? Do they really just want to make you an inquisitor that badly?

You feel a gloved hand on your thigh under the table, Mando must have felt you tense next to him and was trying to comfort you. You relax into his touch and instantly feel need for him. Mando talks more business with Karga, but you aren’t paying attention.

Instead you grab his hand and slide it up higher along your thigh, he squeezes the inside of it, all the while not showing any of it in his body language to Karga. You bring his hand all the way to your pussy and he palms you through your pants, apply the perfect pressure. You try to keep yourself composed. 

He presses his fingers on your pants where your entrance is and you almost whimper. Then his hand leaves you and he grabs four pucks. 

“Thanks, Karga,” he says and then stands up, and you do the same.

You both quickly make your way back to the Gem, and as soon as the ramp is closed he pulls off his helmet and crashes his lips to yours. You welcome the attack from his mouth, his tongue dipping into your mouth. He starts ripping off his armor and his body pushes you backwards to the table. His hands grab your thighs and lifts you onto the table, laying you back on it, and he pulls away from your mouth, and takes off his gloves.

“I was about to fuck you in that cantina, right there on that table,” he growls hungrily, “I want to taste you,” he breathes and undoes your belt and pants, pulls them down your legs. He pushes your shirt up and starts sucking on your hip bones, enough to leave bruises. You let out a sound of pleasure. He hooks his fingers under the waistband of your underwear and glides them down your legs, exposing you to him. 

He kisses his way back up your legs, his hands on your knees, pushing them apart. He traces his tongue along your inner thigh, stopping as he gets to your pussy. You are aching with anticipation as you feel his hot breath over you, dripping for him. 

“Look at me,” he orders. You do, you lift your head and look at him as he sticks his tongue out and drags it up your folds, you groan out and a hand grabs his brown hair.

His tongue reaches your clit and he presses it flat against you, and puts his lips around you and sucks.

“Fuck!” you cry out loudly and your head falls back on the table, Grogu is at the school, so you don’t have to worry about your volume. He moans into you, making your legs shake. Then you feel his fingers at your folds, coating themselves before resting just outside your entrance. He pulls his mouth from his clit.

“Look at me, love,”  _ love _ , he’s never called you that. You lift your head from the table, your eyes meeting his hungry, lustful ones as he presses his two fingers into you. Your lips part as you let out a sharp breath. He takes in your face of pleasure as he works his fingers inside you, hitting them against your walls. Your toes curl as you can feel that wave swelling inside you while you keep eye contact with him. You glance down his body, noticing the bulge at his crotch. Your attention is ripped away from that though when he starts swirling his tongue around your clit. 

You start letting out pants and your legs shake as you feel your orgasm release, you moan his name as you cum on his face.

Once he feels you relax, he removes his fingers and moves up your body to kiss you and you can taste yourself in his mouth. You hear him undoing his own belt and pants. He leans back, standing straight up and pulls his straining hard cock out. He hooks his arms under your thighs and pulls off the table to a standing position, then spins you around and pushes on your back to bend you over the table. 

You moan, “please, Din.”

He groans, “Maker, you look good bent over and begging for me.” He presses against you, you can feel the beskar on his thighs against the back of yours. He rubs his cock along your folds a few times. He kicks your legs a bit wider and lines himself up. He slowly pushes in all the way, staying still buried in you for a minute. The feeling of him inside you sends pleasure through your body, you never want him to leave your walls. 

His hand then presses on the back of your neck, keeping you against the table and he starts roughly thrusting in and out, grunting every time he goes back in. 

“You can’t do things like that...fuck...to me in public,” he breathes out while thrusting in hard and grinding his hips on you. You moan in response, grinding your hips back on him. He smacks your ass, and both his hands move to your hips and he starts rocking his hips again but quicker. You gasp at the thrusts, and you prop yourself up on your elbows, arching your back, making your ass higher to give him more access. 

You can feel every inch of his cock leaving you then slamming back in. His pace becomes more uneven and his grip on your hips tighten. He’s close, you rock your hips back to meet his on the inward thrusts.

“Oh fuck,” he pants behind you, “fuck, fuck, I’m so close,” he grunts a few times with his thrusts and then stills in you. You feel his cock pulsing in you as he spills his cum into you. He takes a deep breath when his body relaxes, and he massages your hips when he had gripped so hard you felt the bruising. 

He leans down and kisses your shoulder blade. You push yourself up more, he pulls out of you and tucks his softening cock back into his pants. You turn around to face him.

“When you put your hand on my knee, I couldn’t help myself,” you admit, “you calmed me down and turned me on at the same time.”

“If the Empire hires and non-guild bounty hunter, them plus...the 12th brother, we’ll need to stay alert,” the concern in his voice leaking through, “so no going off on your own, we stay together.” You nod and he pulls you in for a kiss. You melt into his touch, you’ll never get tired of him. You need him like you need oxygen.

  
  


* * *

  
  
  


You leave Nevarro that night after getting Grogu from the school. He hated leaving the other kids, and you felt bad for him, he rarely gets to be a kid. You play with him at the table after you cleaned it off from earlier, while Mando gets the ship into in space to enter hyperspace. 

Then you feel the ship jerk, and not the entering hyperspace jerk. You run to the cockpit.

“What’s happening?” You ask urgently.

“Looks like the Empire might have had a bounty hunter waiting here for us.” He states and starts doing evasive maneuvers with the ship. But the ship behind keeps shooting and following, you feel the ship get hit. 

“Dank farrik, we’re going into hyperspace,” Din pulls the lever and the ship jolts into hyperspace. You look at the radar, the hunter is tracking you through hyperspace.

“How does he have the capability to do that on a ship that small?” Din questions. 

“Move, let me have the controls,” you order and he is about to argue but then gets up. You sit in the pilot’s seat and mess with the controls, you had only ever done this once, Hera showed you how to. You come out of hyperspace suddenly, then quickly moving your hands over the controls and punching back into hyperspace, and repeating that.

“Are you lightspeed skipping? That’s going to get us killed!” you hear the Mandalorian yell from beside you. You ignore him and come out of hyperspace again, and quickly avoid an asteroid in front of you. The advantage being that your pursuer also had to quickly avoid it and went the other way. You put the ship into hyperspace quickly and check the radar. You are no longer being followed. 

“You were saying?” You say turning to Mando. 

“You nearly got us killed,” he retorts.

“But I didn’t,” you raise an eyebrow and you know he is rolling his eyes under the helmet. 

“Well the bigger problem is that there is a hunter after you already. We need to be careful.” He says and you nod in agreement.

  
.....  
  
  


You feel the ship finally come out of hyperspace the next day when you are meditating with Grogu. You lower yourself and go to the cockpit. You are surprised when you see Kashyyyk in front of you. 

“The first bounty is on Kashyyyk?” You ask curiously and he nods. You haven’t been back in a few years, after you left Chief Tarful, you came a few times when they requested some help, but eventually lost contact. 

“Careful with the Wookies, they can be easily angered and are known to rip limbs off,” Mando says.

You roll your eyes, “I know the Wookies, when I left the temple I stayed hidden here with them, helping them fight the Empire,” you start explaining, “they love me, they won’t be ripping my limbs off, but they might rip yours off,” you laugh and he tilts his helmet at you. 

“Just don’t piss them off,” you say, patting his hand and going back to Grogu. 

When you land you lower the ramp, feeling the humid forest air makes you smile. Mando had landed by a village, which was smart, there’s too many dangerous creatures in the forest here. Mando carries Grogu and you both walk to the village, the Wookies stare at you, you don’t see anyone you recognize. A warrior comes up to you, asking what you are doing here.

“Sorry, I don’t speak- ” Mando starts but you cut him off.

“We are here seeking a bounty. I know Chief Tarful, if you have any of his warriors here, they will be able to vouch for me.” You respond to the wookie and Mando stares at you. 

The wookie responds saying to follow him to the Village center. 

“He says for us to follow him,” you tell the questioning armored man. 

“You understand them?” He asks.

“Of course, I lived here for five years, I had to learn.” You shrug your shoulders and follow the wookie with him. 

He leads you to the village home tree and gestures for you to climb it. Mando puts Grogu in the satchel and follows you up the ladder. You reach the top and stand up, there are three other wookies there. You recognize the one in the middle. 

“Polcho,” you smile and hug him, he does a happy wookie roar and spins you around. “It’s good to see you too buddy.”

Polcho had helped you hone your fighting skills while you lived there and taught you how to navigate the forest. 

Polcho asks who the tin man is and you laugh, “that’s Mando, he’s okay, he’s with me.” 

Mando held out his hand, the wookie shook it, “well you knowing them makes everything much easier than I thought it would be.”

You inform Polcho that Mando is a bounty hunter and you need to find the quarry. Mando holds out the puck, showing the hologram of the man. Polcho says he has seen the man, that he tried to steal food and they chased him into the forest. You inform Mando of this information, he sighs “I was hoping he wouldn’t be in the forest, that makes things harder, we’ll be here longer which isn’t good with a hunter tracking us."

  
  



	23. Venom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You see the webs on the ground? There’s giant spiders here, with deadly venom.” You start looking up in the trees, knowing it’s hiding, waiting for Din to make a wrong move. You grab your saber from under your poncho, ready to ignite it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello you lovely readers and Mando simps! this chapter is slightly shorter than the others, life's getting busy but I am trying to update quickly for you guys.

Polcho had pointed you in the direction the man ran. You thanked him as you and Din set out for the forest.

“There’s a good chance he is already dead, there are many deadly creatures here that an outsider would be an easy target.” You tell him, and look at the green baby in the satchel. 

“So that also makes us easy targets,” he revises your statement. You shake your head.

“No, the wookies taught me how to survive here, so don’t worry, you are safe with me, metal-head,” you smile confidently at him. 

He hits something on his helmet, “he left tracks, we’ll be able to follow him.” He leads the way. 

You walk for what feels like forever. Mando keeps his eyes on the ground, following the footsteps he can see with his helmet. You hear some lemurs in the trees, Mando draws his blaster, you giggle behind him.

“Relax, they are harmless,” you reassure him and he lowers his blaster. 

Theres a river just a few yards away, "we should stop for a drink," you say. He nods, you know he has to be sweating under all he clothes and armor. You both make your way over and you scoop some water into your mouth. Mando sets Grogu down and Grogu gets some water for himself. 

Mando takes off his glove and just raises his helmet over his mouth to scoop some water up to his lips. Once you all are finished, Grogu sits back in the satchel again, and you make your way back to the tracks. 

It feels like another hours goes by, you fill the silence with odd questions. For being in love with the man, you didn’t really know any of the small stuff about him. 

_“What’s your last name?”_

_“Djarin”_

  
  


_“How old were you when you became a bounty hunter?”_

_“Around 18, not really sure of my age”_

  
  


_“When was your first time?”_

_“My first job, a contact I met….she was a bit older, a widow, lonely.”_

  
  


_“Would you rather go to Hoth or Jakku?”_

_“Jakku, I hate the cold.”_

  
  


You glance ahead of him, noticing a small clearing, then instantly reach for him to yank him back, but he steps just out of your reach.

“Din! Don’t. Move.” you say standing back. 

“What is it?” He stops and turns his head. 

“You see the webs on the ground? There’s giant spiders here, with deadly venom.” You start looking up in the trees, knowing it’s hiding, waiting for Din to make a wrong move. You grab your saber from under your poncho, ready to ignite it. 

Din looks around, scanning with his helmet, “I’m not picking anything up with my helmet, maybe it’s not here.”

You close your eyes, trying to sense the creature, “just hold on.” You both wait in silence for a minute, Mando gets impatient. 

“There’s no heat signatures,” he states and continues on.

“Wait!” but it’s too late, the large body of the spider jumps from a high tree down onto him quickly. Din struggles against the spider, engaging the flamethrower on his vambrace, the spider back off of him. You ignite your purple blade and run forward, you jump over the creature, spinning in the air and cut through the body of it with your blade. You land back on the ground, the spider is in two pieces in front of you. 

You go over to Din, Grogu is crying in the satchel, you take him out of it and check all over him. “He’s okay, what about you?” You look over at the man you love, placing your hand on his helmet. 

“I’m fine,” he tells you. 

“Alright, we should find it’s nest, if the bounty came through here, there is a good chance that thing got him, it’s going to be around this area.” He nods to your statement, and you search the area, you find a body wrapped in webs on a tree. You cut it down with your saber. 

Mando walks over, “what happened to him?” questioning why all the veins in this man were black. 

“That’s the venom. I told you, it’s deadly,” you turn to him. Mando nods and ties around the quarries legs to drag him back. You lead the way back, carrying Grogu now. 

When you get to what you think was about your half waypoint back to the village, you hear something fall behind you. You turn and Mando is about 30 feet behind you, and on the ground, lying on his side. 

“Din?” you quickly hurry over to the man in beskar. You set Grogu on the ground, and move your hands to Din’s front, rolling him onto his back. You can hear how fast his breathing is through the modulator. He’s having the same reaction the venom causes, he must have gotten scratched.

“Din?! Hey talk to me, do you know where the spider got you?” You ask, now extremely worried. The wookies had an antidote, but you would have to get him back to the village quickly. 

Nothing comes out of the modulator except uneven breaths, but he grabs his hand at his side. You look, seeing the small tear in the fabric there, you rip it wider to see his skin. There about an inch long scratch, the spider had barely gotten him, but still did. The veins around it were already turning black, and you still had at least another hour back to the village. You look back at his helmet.

“We need to get you back to the village, the wookies know how to fix this,” you inform him while standing up and offering your hand to him, but he doesn’t respond or move. “Din, come on, I know it’s hard, but we need to move,” still no response, he must be barely conscious if it’s already spreading through his bloodstream. 

Yon kneel down, gently placing your hand on the front of his helmet, “please Din, I need you to help me a little bit here.” You beg, and he just groans, still unmoving. You have to get his survival instincts to kick in. He’s a Mandalorian, he’s trained for difficult times. You remove your hand from his helmet, the soft expression on your face goes away, and you grab the fabric at his armpits with your hands.

“On your feet, Mandalorian!” You yell at him with a stern voice while yanking him up. “You stand and fight, not rollover like some imp!” He starts to also push himself with his legs. “Mandalorians cannot be weak! You have a clan to protect! This is the way.” You say the words you have heard him say to so many people. He’s never actually said it to you know, maybe because he had broken his way for you. 

Mando gets to his feet with the help of you pulling him up, you lean him against the tree while you grab the satchel and put Grogu into it then put the strap over your shoulders. You turn back to Mando and put one of his arms over your shoulders and lean him on you, he was heavy, you had felt his weight on you before, but that was without the beskar. 

You continue walking on the path back, leaving the quarry, he was dead so it didn’t matter, you could go back for him later. 

Din’s panting from his modulator filled the air on the walk back. You were sweating before you were carrying him, now the sweat is beading down your face. He has to be drenched under his armor and clothing. Grogu can’t see him from where the satchel is, you pull off his helmet. His brown messy hair is soaked through, sweat is dripping down his forehead, his eyes are barely open. 

“Just hold on, _love_ ,” he had called you love the other day, and now you had just called him it, “hold on for me and Grogu, we need you.”

  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


You stumble back into the village, having replaced Din’s helmet before arriving. “Polcho!” You yell and some of the wookies look at you, the one who had led you to Polcho runs over. “Spider venom, we need the antidote.”

The wookie nods and runs off, you take Din to the ship. You lay him on the bed in the bedroom and put Grogu in his closet, “he’s gonna be okay, kiddo.” 

The wookie comes back carrying a bottle and a syringe. He tells you what to do, but you’ve seen them treat a wookie for this before, you nod and thank him and then go back into the ship and close the ramp. You strip Din of his armor and his sweat soak clothes. You inject the syringe at the wound site and push in the fluid. You then grab the bottle and set yourself on the bed to where his head is resting in your lap. You prop his head up with your legs and hold the bottle up to his mouth.

“You need to drink this,” you softly say while running your hand along his wet forehead. His eyes are closed, but he opens his mouth, you slowly give him sips of the liquid. You stare at him while you do, looking at the small lines on his face from his age, looking at how his chest falls and rises even as the breaths start to become more even and slow themselves. You see the venom disappearing in his veins, it’s working. 

Once the bottle is empty you set it down, and stay there holding his head in your lap. You would do anything for the man right there. He loves you and you love him. You both take care of each other, you both protect each other. You stroke his hair over and over, as his body relaxes, and you know he is asleep. You smile and lean back against the wall, closing your own eyes.

....

You wake sometime later, your hand resting in Din hair, whose head is still in your lap. He stirs and groans. 

“You with me?” You ask, smiling slightly.

“You...you called me an imp,” he says in a sleepy and raspy voice. 

You let out a laugh, “well I had to get you moving somehow you big oaf.” 

“You’re hot when you are barking orders,” he nuzzles his face into your lap. You laugh and rub your thumb across his cheek, but then you speak with a more serious tone, “I was worried, if I didn’t get us back fast enough, you would have ended up like the quarry. 

He opens his eyes to look at you, and turns his head back flat on your lap, “you said I had a clan to protect.”

“Well y-yeah, you have Grogu...he’s your foundling,” you nervously let out. 

“And he’s what you meant?” he is looking at you with his beautiful brown eyes. You nod to him, “of course, he is what I meant.” 

He stares at you for a moment, then opens his mouth, “I consider you part of my clan as well.”

  
  



	24. She Chose Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You switch on your lightsaber as the ship passes above you and jam it into the ship, slicing one of the engines. The ship spirals off in a different direction. You fall back to the ground slowly yourself as you get to the ground and roll. You watch the ship crash and smile, then you look back to where Mando had gone on the speeder and your smile instantly disappears. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello you lovely readers and Mando simps. This chapter pained me to write, dark!cal is just so upsetting.

You go to retrieve the bounty when Din fell asleep again. 

_ I consider you part of my clan as well. _

That’s what he had said to you. He told you he considered you...his family. You knew he loved you, but hearing him say you are part of his clan made you feel...happy. Happy that the man underneath the armor really was in love with you. And you were in love with him. Just as he would do anything to protect you, you would do anything to protect him. You two had become a team, relying on each other. 

You don’t know what that makes you to him, but then again, did you need to name it? You two love each other and you are together, that’s all that matters. 

You finally find the quarry right where you left it, you grab the rope Mando had been dragging it by and start your way back. 

You get back, sweating, you drag the body of the ramp to the carbonite chamber and freeze him and put him in the storage bay.

Din emerges from the bedroom, only wearing pants, “did you get the bounty?”

You nod, “yes love, I did,” you say moving closer to him, putting your hands on his abdomen and then sliding them around his waist. He puts his arms around you, and he just looks at you, his expression is soft, he leans his head down and gives you a quick and gentle kiss.

“Thank you,” he says. You release him from your arms, “Grogu will be awake soon, you should get dressed.”

He sighs and nods, releasing his own arms from you, and puts on the rest of his clothing, then moves onto his armor. 

You watch as he slides his vambraces on, then slides on his gloves. His helmet sitting on the table. You grab it and he turns to you, giving you a confused look. You lean up and kiss him. You both move your lips together until you pull away and lift the helmet over his head and lower it onto his head. 

“Where to next, Metal-head?”

He laughs through the modulator, “back to the place we met, Tattooine.”

* * *

  
  


He lands the Gem in hangar 3-5 when you arrive at Mos Eisley, you lower the ramp and see Peli, the same woman who had made you start to initially trust Din.

“Well, well, well, did that other hunk of junk finally fall apart on you Mandalorian?” Peli asks loudly.

“It’s a long story,” he replies and walks over to the droids that are going to do repairs on the ship. She turns her attention to you and the child in your arms.

“You’re still travelling with him? He hasn’t managed to scare you off yet?” She laughs, and you smile and laugh as well. Mando jerks his helmet over.

“Oh, he isn’t that scary, once you get to know him,” you say and she raises an eyebrow and hums. 

“Ah I see, it’s like that now,” she eyes between you and Mando. You feel color rush to your face unsure how to respond. She laughs, “relax dear, no judgement here, though to have woo-ed a woman like you he must be handsome under that helmet.” You see Mando turn his head slightly toward you two, he must have heard her. 

You smile and wink at her even though you had fallen for him without ever seeing his face. You loved him when you had no idea what he looked like. You had fallen in love with him for just being him. 

“He best be treating you right or I’ll smack him upside that tin can myself!” she exclaims and you laugh, “he does, he may not seem like it on the outside, but he can be sweet when he wants to be.” 

She smiles and then looks at Grogu in your arms. “Hey there little one!” She reaches out her arms and you hand him to her. 

“And don’t break anything,” Mando’s voice echoed from where he was with the droids, you look over and he is walking back over to you and Peli. “You still have that speeder?” He questions Peli.

“Yep, still a piece of garbage though,” she responds.

“As long as it works, can the kid stay with you?” He must trust her well if he would leave Grogu with her.

“Of course, I’ll charge you a baby-sitting fee though,” she raises an eyebrow and Mando chuckles. He turns to you, the tracking fob is blinking, let’s go. 

You walk out to the speeder, he swings his leg over and grabs the handle bars. You put your hand on his shoulder and swing your leg over, sitting yourself behind him. You snake your arms around his torso, pressing your front to his back. He slightly turns his helmet, “hold on.” The bike shoots forward.

  
  


* * *

  
  
  


Travelling across the desert, a ship flies overhead, the same ship that had attacked you when you left Nevarro and tracked you through lightspeed. It shoots at you as it passes over you. Mando swirves to avoid the fire. 

“Dank farrik!” He yells. The ship circles back around, now chasing you and shooting.

“Don’t stop, just keep going!” You yell as you stand up on the back of the speeder. Din doesn’t even question you, knowing you are going to use your abilities to do something. You grab your saber under your poncho, watching the ship follow. You wait for the right time and then leap up into the air, using the force to help you gain height. 

You switch on your lightsaber as the ship passes above you and jam it into the ship, slicing one of the engines. The ship spirals off in a different direction. You fall back to the ground slowly yourself as you get to the ground and roll. You watch the ship crash and smile, then you look back to where Mando had gone on the speeder and your smile instantly disappears. 

An imperial transport ship was stationed on the ground.  _ When did that get there? _

There were stormtroopers standing around, their blasters aimed at Din. And Din was there, on his knees, with a red blade to his neck. 

_ Cal’s red blade. _

You run over. 

“You can stop there,” Cal says when you are a few yards away, moving his saber slightly.

You halt in your tracks, your eyes fixed on the t-visor. You knew the fear on your face was noticeable. The fear from a lightsaber being at Din’s throat. You look up at Cal, seeing the shadows around his eyes and the red and yellow color of his eyes where there used to be blue. 

“Turn off your saber and toss it over here,” he orders. You follow them, not wanting to risk Din getting hurt. You toss the hilt by Cal, and he steps on it so you can’t force pull it back to yourself.

“Let him go Cal,” you plead. 

“So it’s true, you are this Mandalorian’s whore now,” he spits, “I knew you would eventually move on from me, but  _ him? _ He’s weak.” 

Your fear suddenly turns to anger, “ _ him? Weak? _ Look at yourself Cal, you’re the one that’s an inquisitor!  _ You’re the weak one. _ ” 

“Careful, I’m the one holding the blade to his neck,” he reminds you, moving the saber’s glow closer to Din’s neck. “And you’re wrong. I’m more powerful than I ever was before. You could be too.”

“This isn’t you Cal, this is dark-side twisting your mind!” You yell, worry appearing back in your eyes as you look at Din. 

“You’ll see in due time what I mean, y/n,” he starts, “now I have a deal for you. Surrender and allow my troopers to handcuff you and come with me on to my cruiser,” he pauses for a moment, looking at Din then back at you, “Or you can resist and I’ll kill him right here.” 

You glare at him, then look at Din.

“Don’t do it,” Din breathes out. 

“Quiet!” a stormtrooper behind him yells and steps on his calf. Din grunts in pain. 

You close your eyes and take a deep breath. You know what you have to do. You won’t let Din die for you. You love him. You’ll give yourself to the Empire for him. You’ll return to your life of torture for him. You open your eyes, you give him a sad look.

“I love you,” you say softly and then look at Cal. “I’ll go with you.”

“No!” Din yells.

“Good choice,” Cal smirks and waves his free hand for a trooper to go and handcuff you with force dampening cuffs. 

You don’t struggle. The trooper is then pushing you towards the transport, you glance at the t-visor watching you.

“Red…” he says, sounding defeated. You board the transporter and sit down. 

The rest of the troopers board, Cal looks at the man on his knees, still having his blade to him.

“Must hurt, your woman leaving you to go with her first,” he says snidely. 

“You gave her the choice of going with you or killing me. By going with you, she chose me.” Din growls through the modulator. 

“We’ll see what her choice is when she finally embraces the dark-side,” Cal mocks and kicks his back, pushing him forward before he jumps onto the transport, and the pilot takes off. 

Cal walks up the ramp and shuts it. He sits beside you. “Like old times, huh?”

You sneer at him, “no, this is nothing like old times. I don’t know this ‘12th brother’ persona you’ve taken on, but I know Cal is still in there.”

“Then you’ll be highly disappointed when you finally come to the realization that he isn’t,” he replies.

“How did you even find us?” You question.

“I had the Cantina bugged, I knew exactly what bounties the Mandalorian took. I hired the other hunter to get you two separated, knowing you would take the bait. I knew that if I had that pathetic tinman, you wouldn’t fight,” he explains.

“He’s not pathetic, he’s twice the man than the one sitting next to me right now.” You spit at him. 

  
  



	25. The 12th Brother

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “The Cal you knew is gone. Dead.” He barks.
> 
> “You loved me, you won’t do this to me,” you plead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello you lovely readers and Mando simps! This chapter hurt more than the last one to write, it physically pained me writing Inquisitor Dark-side Cal. 
> 
> WARNING: Verbal and physical abuse!!!

The transport lands in the hangar of the Imperial cruiser. Cal stands up, yanking you to your feet by your under arm. He escorts you out of the transport and through the ships bay to the hallways.

“What did they do to you Cal?” You ask, “How did they make you like this?”

“They showed me my true potential. You have seen yours, on Lothal, that was quite the display.” He says, “if that Mandalorian hadn’t torn you away from your power, you would already be my partner commanding this ship.”

You think back to Lothal, Din had brought you back when you lost control of your emotions. He was your reason to fight. You’ll have to remember that more than ever now that you are back in the Empire’s grasp. Din will be what you have to think of when you get close to giving in. 

Cal gets to a door and opens it. He shoves you into it, a cell. 

“Cal, I know you are still in there! You can still fight it!” You scream at him.

“The Cal you knew is gone. Dead.” He barks.

“You loved me, you won’t do this to me,” you plead.

He kneels down in front of you, _“you are dead to me.”_ He stands up and exits the room, the door shutting behind him. You feel the tears flow down your face, he couldn’t mean that. 

  
  


* * *

  
  
  


Mando stood up watching the transport fly away. The transport with you in it. You gave yourself back to the Empire. You gave yourself back to a life of torture. 

You did it for him. 

You did it so that Cal wouldn’t kill him. He had such a mix of emotions he didn’t know what he felt. He was angry that Cal used him against you, used him to make you go with him. He was scared as well, scared for what will happen to you. Scared that he may never see you again. 

No.

He would see you again. He told you that you were a part of his clan. He was to protect his clan. He would rescue you, he had too. He couldn't even stand to imagine the torture they would put you through again. 

He looked at the ground, your saber was still there where Cal had stood. He bends down and picks it up. He looks at the eight-pointed star on the end of it. He promised you he would always be there for you, and he wasn’t going to break his promise. 

* * *

  
  
  


You lay in your cell, you had tried not to fall asleep, but you were so tired and couldn’t fight it any longer.

…...

_“Y/n, hey wake up.” a voice whispers to you._

_You awake when you are ten years old from your bed in the girls sleeping quarters, you open your eyes, it’s dark but there is enough light to still see. “Cal? What is it? Go to bed.” you whisper in your fog of sleep._

_“Come on, I’m bored,” he complains, “and….I found a way to the roof of the temple, you gotta see it.”_

_You open your eyes wider, “Really?” He nods, you look around, everyone else is sound asleep, “okay, lead the way.”_

_He smiles and grabs your hand, pulling you out of bed and leaves the room. You two run down the halls quietly, sometimes Master’s roamed the hallways during late hours for strange reasons._

_He leads you to the archives. “Cal, we can get in a lot of trouble if we get caught going in the archives._

_“Are you scared?” He questions with a mocking voice. You glare at him, “no, of course not!”_

_“Then come on!” He goes through the door and you both walk through the shelves of the archives until there is a door in the back. He opens it, revealing a staircase that leads all the way up to the top._

_“Race you to the top!” he says and you both start running up the stairs, laughing. You easily gain the advantage since you have always been lighter on your feet. You reach the top._

_“Snooze you lose,” you mock to him, and he rolls his eyes. You exit through the door at the top and you can see the city lights of Coruscant. You stare in amazement, sure, you’ve see the city at night, but no like this._

_“Cal this is amazing!” You exclaim to him with pure joy in your voice._

_“I knew you would love it.” He smiles at you._

_“Thank you, Cal,” you hug your best friend tight, feeling him hug you back._

_….._

  
  


_You walk out of the cockpit of the Mantis, Greez had just been telling you stories of his gambling days, and you were starting to get bored. You walked back to the table, Cal was messing with Cere’s guitar. You sit down next to him ._

_“Can you even play that thing?” You question him. The temple never taught any instruments._

_“A little, here, listen, “ he starts playing a tune on it. It’s a beautiful tune, you had never heard it before. You watch his fingers move on the strings and then look at his face while he is playing. You love his tender-hearted eyes, they always made you feel warm and safe. You were in love with your best friend. You were in love with him, but you couldn’t tell him. If he didn’t feel the same way then it might make it awkward between you two, and you didn’t want that._

_He finishes playing and looks at you, “what did you think?”_

_“I liked that a lot,” you smile at him and he smiles back. Maker, you loved his smile. You notice that you are staring and quickly avert your eyes. “Did you teach yourself that or did Cere teach you?” You question._

_“I actually managed to teach myself that, believe it or not,” he lets out a laugh._

_“I’ll go with ‘or not,’” you tease while scrunching your nose and putting your hand in his hair to ruffle it._

_….._

You are woken by the door to your cell opening, and Cal walking in. You sit up on the bench. He has food in his hand, he sets the tray on the bench while sitting next to you. 

“Things can go much easier for you, if you just give in. There will be no need for torture, no need for pain.” He states while looking at you.

“You almost sound like you care,” you retort. 

“I do care, I care about you becoming an inquisitor as soon as possible, maybe we can actually be friends again since we’ll be on the same page.” He speaks softer, “isn’t that what you want? Haven’t you missed me?” 

You look at him, and for a moment he seems like Cal, _your Cal_. You soften your expression, gently reaching your hand up to his face, and tenderly pressing your lips to his, he kisses you back.

It doesn’t feel right. He isn’t Cal, he’s the 12th brother. But that’s not it either, it’s not just that he isn’t Cal, it’s that he isn’t _Din._

You quickly move your head back. 

“No, you’re not him,” you say.

“I told you, the Cal you knew is dead,” he says emotionless.

“Not that, you’re not Din,” you respond.

Then his face changes, his nostrils flare and he smacks the tray of food onto the floor and stands up.

“That pitiful Mandalorian?! That’s who you’re thinking about?! The one you just open your legs for like a whore every night?!” His words like poison to your ears. This definitely is the 12th brother. You sharpen your expression, now angry.

“I open my legs for him because I love him, and he loves me!” You yell, standing up to face him even though you are still cuffed. 

Cal grabs his inquisitor blade and ignites it, pure hatred on his face. 

“What? Are you going to kill me? Good, then there is no chance I’ll ever become like you!” You snarl at him. He tilts his head, then holds up his hand, and suddenly you feel pressure on your throat. 

He’s force choking you.

You can only get little gasps through. You feel yourself start to levitate. Tears swell in your eyes, you know Cal has to be in there, he has to be screaming to get out. 

“C-Cal..” is all you can get out. Then you abruptly fall onto the ground, landing on your side. You cough and gasp for air. 

“ _Do not test me again,_ ” he says through his gritted teeth and leaves the cell. You sit up, still coughing, and lean back against the bench and the water goes down your cheeks. 

What had they done to Cal to make him like this? He’s full of anger, and hate. He’s suffering. He’s suffering because you didn’t know he had been alive. You didn’t know that they had been torturing him. You should have known, you should have felt his presence in the force. You let him down. This is your fault. 

  
  


* * *

  
  
  


Mando finally made his way through the desert of Tattooine back to Mos Eisley. He went to hangar 3-5, Peli was there with the kid.

“Back already?” She raises an eyebrow.

He doesn’t say anything, he just keeps walking to the Gem.

“Where’s the girl? What did you do with her?” She gets up from her seat.

“Empire ambushed us...they took her,” he quietly says, feeling guilty. 

“And you’re alive?” She asks.

“They agreed not to kill me if she went with them willingly.” He feels the guilt pile up in his chest. You condemned herself, so that they would spare him. He hadn’t wanted you to do it, he wanted you to run, to save yourself. 

“So what are you going to do about it?” She pesters him, “surely you aren’t going to sulk around while they have the woman you care about, doing who knows what to her.”

“Of course not, I am going to tear the galaxy apart to get her back. But I can’t do it alone.”

  
  



	26. Our Clan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You know acting out of rage isn’t strength. Resisting the urge to act out of rage is real strength. You used to know that better than anyone. Cere would be disappointed.” You calmly say to him. 
> 
> “Well Cere isn’t here,” he grits out and his hand goes over to the panel, turning the dial.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello you lovely readers and Mando simps! More pain and hurt this chapter, it hurts just to write them. It goes between what is happening to the reader and what Din is doing. 
> 
> WARNING: Abuse.

You don’t know if it’s been three hours or ten hours when the door opens next and two stormtroopers walk in. 

“Get up, you’re coming with us,” One says while the other yanks you to your feet and pushes you to the doorway. You walk with them through the long halls of the cruiser, following the lead of the one in front. He turns into a room, you walk in, Cal is standing there, and next to him is a familiar mount. The same type of pedestal you had been put in during your other time with the Empire, the one they used to inflict pain. 

You stop and start to back up, fear taking control of your body. The stormtrooper behind urges you forward though, fighting against your struggling body. The other one grabs you as well and they drag you over and put you up into it. They tighten the restraints. 

You catch your breath and look at Cal, who has a smug look on his face.

“Jaro Tepal would be ashamed to see you right now!” You spit at him.

“Jaro Tepal was weak, that’s why he died so easily,” he rolls his eyes at you. 

“Cal, you don’t mean that, he died saving your life!” You look at him confused, Cal always upheld his master with respect, much like you imagine you would have with Master Kenobi. 

“And it cost him his own life. That’s pathetic and weak.” He retorts.

“I spent years being tortured because I made it so that you could escape on Felucia,” you tell him through water piling in your eyes.

“The torture could have been shorter if you hadn’t fought it,” he raises his eyebrows. 

Nothing is getting through to him. He turns to walk to the control panel and the lieutenant there.

“What about Cere? What about Greez?” 

He slightly turns his head, “they are both dead.”

You take in his words, you had lost contact with them so many years ago, you maybe spoke to them once over a hologram after you had been freed from the Empire.

“That’s what made you give in to the dark-side, isn’t it?” You questioned, “Vader killed them in front of you?” 

He turns with anger in his eyes, “Vader showed me true strength.”

“You know acting out of rage isn’t strength. Resisting the urge to act out of rage is real strength. You used to know that better than anyone. Cere would be disappointed.” You calmly say to him. 

“Well Cere isn’t here,” he grits out and his hand goes over to the panel, turning the dial.

You feel a familiar pain course through your body and all you can hear is the sound of your own screams.

* * *

  
  


Mando had set course for Dantooine, he knew his best chance against an inquisitor would be a Jedi. He needed Ezra, and the rest of the team. He lands the ship outside their base. 

He lowers the ramp, Grogu standing next to him. Sabine had come outside. He moves swiftly down the ramp.

“Hey there Mando, where’s y/n?” She asks and he strides past her, Grogu struggling to keep up. 

“I’ll explain later, get everyone together in the kitchen,”

Sabine gathers everyone into the kitchen and they all look to Mando, waiting for him to talk.

“The Empire has y/n, they ambushed us on Tatooine...she went with them, so that they would spare my life.” The guilt is eating him alive, he has to get you back, before they do any real damage.

“Was it Cal?” Ezra chimes in.

Mando nods to the question. 

“We need to get to her, Cal knows her better than anyone, he can use her past against her.” Ezra states. 

Mando feels his blood boil at the sound of Cal’s name. Someone that was meant to have loved you probably doing terrible things to you. Someone you cared about, someone he knew you wouldn’t hurt because you had told him that you chose both him and Cal in the Kyber caves. 

Cal would hurt you though, in any way he could. He wanted to tear Cal apart. 

Zeb begins to speak, “just one problem, we have to find the cruiser, and have a plan to board it, and then find her without getting killed.”

“I may be able to help with that,” Kallus interrupts, “I still know imperial passwords, if they haven’t been changed, I can find the location of the ship. I would need to get to an imperial database though.”

Mando didn’t like Kallus before, but he may be his only hope now at finding you. 

Sabine nods to Kallus, “I’ll start looking into bases with minimal staffing.”

Ezra looks at Mando, “we are going to help you get her back.” 

He nods in response.

* * *

  
  


You scream through the pain, but you aren’t just screaming, you are screaming Din’s name. Screaming it as if he is going to burst through the door and save you from the pain jolting through your body. Anyone within a hundred yard of the room on the ship can hear you screaming his name, but you need his name, his name gives you more comfort than the name Mando does. 

Din is kind, tender, soft, sweet, thoughtful, and loving. Din’s arms being around you is your favorite feeling in the entire galaxy. The thought of Din makes you feel safe.

You manage to open your eyes, you see that Cal is turned from the control panel, speaking in a hologram communicator. Cal must have notice the absence of your screaming.

He turns his head to the lieutenant, “Turn up the power, don’t give her any breaks,” and then he turns back to his message.

You feel a higher jolt of energy, as the tensing pain begins again and you scream Din’s name so loud through your tears, you’re sure the person that gets the hologram will be able to hear you.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Sabine had found a small base on Yavin, which was close. They were all on Ghost, Mando was sitting in the cockpit with Hera.

“She’s strong, she’ll be okay,” Hera says with a reassuring voice.

“I’ll believe that when she’s with me again,” He responds plainly.

“You really do love her, don’t you?” She looks over at him. 

He was almost offended at the question. Of course he loved you. He wasn’t going to stop searching for you until he had his arms around you again. 

“Yes,” he breathes through the modulator. 

“Well, if I know her at all, I know she loves you too, and she fights for the people she loves.” Hera smiles over at him.

…..

They arrive at Yavin, the buildings are all in the clouds, Mando and Sabine use their jetpacks to leave the ship in the air and clear off any patrols on the landing pad.

“All clear, Hera,” Sabine radios to her.

Hera lands the ship and everyone exits, Hera stays with Grogu on the ship. In the base there were only a few troopers, it really was a small base with a skeleton crew. They get to the control room, Kallus goes over to the database computer and starts working on it. 

Sabine messes with their coms table. Mando is watching Kallus until he hears a voice behind him.

Cal’s voice.

He turns and there is a hologram of Cal in front of Sabine.

_ “Grand Admiral, I am pleased to inform you that I am en route to your location, and I have the Jedi you’ve been searching for.” _

_ He turns his face “Turn up the power, don’t give her any breaks.” _

Then he hears it. He hears you.

He hears you screaming his name in pain loudly. He feels his stomach drop, and his heart pound in his chest. He closes his eyes in his helmet, and his hands both make a fist at his sides as his body goes rigid. 

He wasn’t mad that you were breaking his creed on the imperial ship by crying his name. He knew that if you were screaming it, it was because you needed him _.  _ He was mad that he wasn’t there to pull you into his arms and make the pain disappear. He was mad at the man on the hologram, a man you had claimed to love you at one point, torturing you. And he was taking you to Thrawn.

_ I’ve already begun breaking her fight for you Grand Admiral. I’ll see you tomorrow.  _

The hologram ends. Sabine, Zeb, and Ezra are staring at Mando, noticing his posture and his balled fists. 

“No! You stupid piece of junk!” Kallus smack the computer and turns to the group, “they’ve changed the higher level passwords. I can’t get a location on the ship.”

Mando turns to him, angry and grabbing the collar of Kallus’ shirt, “I need the location of that ship!” He yells.

“I can’t! I don’t know the password!” He pleads.

“Mando let him go, we’ll find another way.” Ezra goes over pulling Kallus from his grip.

“How old is that recording?” Mando asks Sabine.

“Three hours ago,” she replies.

Mando looks back at Ezra, “He’s taking her to Thrawn, you’ve been searching for him for years, if he hands her over, we’ll never find her.” 

“But we can find Cal, we can make him take us. There’s always another way.” 

  
  


* * *

  
  


You feel the restraints being loosened. You feel weak, but you managed to open your eyes, Cal is standing in front of you, two troopers are undoing the restraints. You don’t know why, but you expected Cal to catch you like he had when he rescued you, but instead you hit the floor at his feet. 

“Good, take her back to her cell, she’ll be too weak to put up a fight the Grand Admiral.” You hear him say and the troopers grab your wrists by the cuffs and drag you to your cell. 

They leave you on the floor, and you can’t even get yourself up off the ground. You lay there in the cold room. Your thoughts wander to Din and Grogu. The image of the little green child appeared in your mind and made you smile. You missed his little noises, and seeing him focus so hard to use the force. 

Then you thought about Din. You imagined him lying behind you and putting his arm around you, pulling you to his body. You imagined it so well you could feel him there. You love him and you don’t know if you’ll ever see him again. If Cal was taking you to Thrawn, then probably not. 

You whisper into the empty room, but still imagining Din lying behind you.

“I’ll try to fight for you. For you and Grogu. For our clan.”

  
  



	27. Fiery Spirit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The ramp closes and the ship powers up, you feel it lift off the floor and start moving. When it leaves the bay, you can see another star cruiser. 
> 
> Thrawn’s Star Cruiser.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello you lovely readers and Mando simps. This story is also on Wattpad now if you prefer that site! Another painful chapter, I'm sorry. Writing Cal as an inquisitor is so hard because I love him so much. Din isn't doing well, he needs his Red.

You slowly blink your eyes open, you didn’t have any sense of how long you had slept. You felt some of your strength return. You push yourself from the floor to a sitting position and lay back against the bench. 

How could Cal torture you like that? How could he be the one to inflict that pain on you? How could he not feel his true self screaming inside? 

Was he right?

Was the Cal you knew truly gone?

He said they had killed Cere and Greez. That was what had gotten him to give in. He cared about both of them.

Maybe Cal was too far gone for you to get through to him. You had to try though. You have to try to get through to the real Cal within him. 

And just like on cue, the door slides open and Cal walks in.

“Good you’re awake, we’ll be arriving soon,” he informs you with a small smile on his face.

“Arriving where?” You question, your voice sounding scratchy from screaming yesterday. 

“Grand Admiral Thrawn’s cruiser.” You feel the color drain from your face as you tense. “He’s been waiting for your capture for a long time,” the shell of your friend says. 

“Cal… please. Do you remember when you saved me? You released me from the torture mount, and I fell into your body. The comfort of you being there made it feel like everything bad that had happened didn’t matter.” You have to try and speak to your best friend, “and then when you were exiting the Ghost...Cal, that pain of watching you disappear as the ramp closed was worse than any torture the Empire put me through.”

He kneels down in front of you, “and then Vader spared me, so that I could reach my full potential. Thrawn will show you your’s.”

“Please Cal, come back to me,” you beg, sadness on your face.

“I’m not that love-sick boy you knew, I don’t love you. And I doubt the Mandalorian does either, you sounded weak yelling out his name yesterday,” he spits.

No he doesn’t get to speak about Din to you. 

“Leave him out of this, you don’t know anything about him,” you argue back.

“Oh, but I do. I looked into him. He joined the guild years ago. He’s a relentless killer, and he only cares about himself. He had his own vendetta against Gideon, that’s the only reason he bothered to save you then,” he says with a smirk. 

“You’re wrong, you don’t know him like I do,” you say lifting your chin. 

Cal stands up, “you’re right, I’m not his bitch. Does he know that I was the first to fuck you? Does he know how useless you are?”

His words cut deep into you. You feel the tears behind your eyes.

“Does he know how the Empire  _ damaged  _ you?”

Those words are sharp, and you know what he is talking about, your scar on your lower abdomen. 

“Y-You don’t mean what you are saying,” you say, holding back the tears, not wanting to give him the satisfaction. 

He rolls his eyes, and then there is an alarm that goes off throughout the ship. He smiles, “time to board a transport and see Grand Admiral Thrawn.”

…..

  
  


Mando stays in the coms room at the base on Dantooine, you screaming his name while in pain replaying in his head. You needed him and he had no idea where you even were. He made you part of his clan, and it’s his duty to protect his clan. He had to find you.

Cal was going to hand you off to Thrawn today. He didn’t know what Thrawn had done to you before, it had made you sick just thinking about it one time, so he never pressed the matter. But now you were being handed to him in a silver platter because you had turned yourself in to save Mando on Tattooine. 

It was his fault you were being tortured, and you still called out for him through your pain. 

Then he thinks about the man in the transmission. Cal, the 12th brother, your first love, your best friend, was the one inflicting that torture. 

You had told him that you chose both of them in the kyber caves, that you cared about both of them, but after yesterday, all he wanted to do was make Cal beg for mercy as he tortured him. Before he had been understanding, you had loved Cal and he was your best friend, seeing him as an inquisitor had to have been hard. But now things have changed, he is hurting you and doesn’t care. Cal didn’t deserve any of your love. 

He tries to soothe his anger by thinking of you again. You’re alone, who knows if you are already with Thrawn, terrified. You’re strong, but what if you can’t hold the Empire off this time. What if they break you? 

He could feel his own fear in his eyes, making water pile up. He was thankful for his helmet, so if anyone walked in he was shielded as a tear fell down his cheek. 

…..

  
  


You are led to a transport ship in the hangar, escorted by Cal and some troopers. 

“Cal, please try to remember the person you were,” you plead. He ignores our words, and a trooper shoves you at the ramp of the ship. You stumble forward up the ramp. You take a seat, your wrists are hurting from the cuffs being on for so long.

The ramp closes and the ship powers up, you feel it lift off the floor and start moving. When it leaves the bay, you can see another star cruiser. 

Thrawn’s Star Cruiser.

You take a deep breath. You don’t know what Thrawn has planned for you. You resisted his torture before, surely you could do it again. You just had to remember Din and Grogu. You just had to remember Din’s soft brown eyes, and Grogu large beady ones. 

Din and Grogu would be your sanctuary in your mind. 

But you would also still fight for Cal.

You had to believe that your best friend was still in the 12th brother somewhere. You and Cal had too much history for him to just abandon you completely, deep down, he had to still care on some level. If only you had been there to rescue him when they tortured him.

Cal looks at you, “you can make this easy on yourself, don’t fight it.”

You glare at him, “I’ll never stop fighting, not when I have people that still love me.”

“Din has probably already forgotten about you.”

Hearing him say Din’s name felt like pins in your ears. Yes, he knew it because you had screamed for Din yesterday, but that name was only for you to say. Din’s name was special to you. A part of his creed he had broken for you, just like removing his helmet for you. Din’s name was only to ever roll off your tongue.

“Don’t you dare say his name, and you’re wrong,” you spit out at him.

“You’re nothing to him, just like you are nothing to me,” he responds in a calm voice. Then the transport is entering the bay of the other cruiser. You feel the force weigh on you. You take a deep breath as you sense a dark fate awaits you. 

The ship lands, a stormtrooper grabs your upper arm, pulling you to your feet. The ramp opens, the light from the hangar filling the transport. You see troopers lined up and at the end, Thrawn is standing there. He has the stupid smug look on his face like normal. 

Cal walks ahead and you are pushed to follow.

You look at all the stormtroopers lined up, there’s so many. Even if Din can locate you, there’s no way he could ever fight his way through.

Cal reaches Thrawn, and you stand just behind him.

“Grand Admiral, here is the Jedi we’ve been searching for,” Cal says with pride in his voice.

“That it is,” Thrawn looks at you with the same dead red-eyes you remember, “lovely to see you again, my dear.”

You hum, “can’t say the same for you.” 

His lips upturn, “still have the fiery spirit I see, it will be a shame to see that disappear once we get started.”

“Nothing you do will ever break me,” you growl back at him. 

“We shall see about that,” a smirk appearing on his face. He looks at Cal, “good work Kestis, the Empire is one step closer to returning to its former glory.”

Cal nods.

“Take her to the chamber,” Thrawn orders to some troopers. The chamber? What did he mean? The troopers go behind you and push you forward, you stop and turn to Cal

You look at him, at his now yellow and red eyes, missing the blue that used to be present, “if there is even just a sliver of the Cal I knew still in there, I just want him to know that I’m sorry I wasn’t there when he needed me, and that this,” you look him up and down, “became his fate.”

Cal just glances at you, unmoving, looks back at Thrawn, “I look forward to having another inquisitor by my side.”

“Of course, I’ll make quick work of her. The Empire will have a new inquisitor shortly.” Thrawn says while looking at you. You glare back at him, you won’t show him any weakness. 

The troopers behind you shoves you again, “get moving.” You turn your head and follow the trooper in front of you. You walk the halls for a long while until they finally lead you into a room, there’s a table with restraints on it. There’s tech you’ve never seen before surrounding it, which can’t mean anything good. What new techniques of torture was Thrawn going to try on you? 

Your heart rate increases in your chest and the troopers grab you and force you onto the table and strap you down. There’s a blindingly bright light above your face. And you find yourself praying for Din to show up.

  
  
  
  



	28. Torture

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Oh how I have been waiting for this, finally, we’ll have the strongest inquisitor ever,” he says proudly.
> 
> “I’ll never be an inquisitor,” you spit up at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello you lovely readers and Mando simps!
> 
> WARNING: this chapter gets kinda dark.

You lay strapped on the table, they haven’t done anything yet, Thrawn probably would like to have the pleasure of causing you pain himself. You look at the tech surrounding the table, no clue what it is. You wonder what kind of torture Thrawn has in store for you. 

Whatever he does, however he hurts you, you’ll fight. You won’t give up on Din and Grogu. You won’t give up on the true Cal. You are balanced in the force. You will remain balanced in the force despite Thrawn’s efforts to twist your mind.

You look at the scientist in the room, at least he looks like a scientist. Was Thrawn going to experiment on you again? What does he hope to gain from that? He already did so many years ago.

The door slides open and the blue man appears, the disgusting smug expression on his face as always. He walks over to the table and looks down at you. 

“Oh how I have been waiting for this, finally, we’ll have the strongest inquisitor ever,” he says proudly.

“I’ll never be an inquisitor,” you spit up at him.

“Oh, I never said anything about making you an inquisitor, I said I was going to make an inquisitor. Much like our dark troopers, we plan to make a droid inquisitor.” He informs you.

“What? Droids can’t wield the force,” you say confused.

“Correction, droids couldn’t wield the force,” he revises your statement. “Do you remember those experiments we did on you so long ago? Well, we’ve finally worked out the logistics and issues. We can harness the force you release and place it into the droid.”

He can’t just take the force out of you, it’s part of you. There’s no way they can place it in a droid.

“You can’t take the force out of me,” you tell him, “that’s not how it works.”

“I’ve been studying it for years now, it will work. The process is excruciating, and you’ll probably die, but I’m not concerned about you.” He turns and waves his hand at you. His plan wasn’t to turn you into an inquisitor, he just wanted to take the force out of you. 

“Inject her with the serum, let the nightmares begin,” The admiral says and then the scientist walks over, you glare at him. He has a syringe that he presses to the side of your neck and you feel the small pinch, and then you can quickly feel the effects making you instantly sleepy.

…..

Cal made his way back to his own cruiser. He was happy Thrawn was pleased with him capturing you. And soon Thrawn will make you an Inquisitor. He wants to be friends again. He wouldn’t admit it, but he did miss you. He wanted you to abandon that Mandalorian for him, abandon that mandalorian for the dark-side. 

He makes his way to the command deck, “we’re all set commander,” he says.

“Good, that Jedi scum will be out of our way for good,” he barks, “set out course for Lothal, we still need to make sure the base is being fixed up properly.”

“She’ll be back when she is like me,” Cal informs him. The commander laughs. “From what I heard Thrawn plans to kill her, he’s perfected his beskar inquisitor droid, all it needs is a force source.”

This was the first Cal had heard of such thing. “Inquisitor droid?”

The commander nods, “from the sounds of it, it’s quite impressive from my understanding, made out of baskar so it is resistant to the strike of a saber.”

“But making this droid will kill her?” Cal tried to hide the flicker of concern in his voice. 

“I don’t know how it works, but I know there is no intention to keep her alive for long.” 

…..

_ You are on the Gem, Din and Grogu aren’t in the cabin, you check the bedroom, Din isn’t there. You check the closet for Grogu, he’s there, unmoving. _

_ “Hey, kiddo,” you say to him, he doesn’t wake up. “Grogu, come on,” you grab him, he is stiff and cold. You jump back.  _

_ No, no, no. You are breathing heavy now, fear in your eyes. “Din!” You open the door to the cockpit, Din is sitting in the pilot seat.  _

_ “Din! I don’t know what happened, Grogu is dead,” you cry out through sobs. He doesn’t move, and he doesn’t say anything. _

_ “Din?” You go over, terrified. You put your hands to his helmet and pull it off.  _

_ He looks like the bounty from Kashyyyk. He looks like he was starting to with the venom. All the veins in him are back. You fall back and scream, “No! No! I don’t understand!” you cry uncontrollably, pushing yourself back against the wall. How did this happen? How are they both dead? How did you get to this point? _

……

Cal went back to his quarters, thinking what he had just learned. Thrawn was going to kill you, not turn you into an inquisitor. Thrawn failed to tell him this, Thrawn lied to him. Why did he feel like this? Why did he feel like he cared?

He didn’t, he couldn’t. 

But he did. 

He never had the intention to kill you see you killed. He wanted you beside him working for the Empire.

He didn’t know what to do. He felt like he was being torn apart. He punched the wall, breathing heavily. 

_ Trust only in the force, padawan.  _

His former Master Tepal’s voice echoed in his head, calling him to the light.

No, he served the Empire now, he couldn’t go back to the light. But he couldn’t let you die. You were his best friend, you two had always been there for each other growing up. 

He thinks about when he left to be Jaro Tepal’s padawan. 

_ “You’re really leaving me,” you said to him with a sad face. Cal was going off with his Master now that he is thirteen.  _

_ “Hey, I can send transmissions to you still,” he reassured her.  _

_ “You better not forget about me,” you say with a small smile appearing on your lips.  _

_ “Never, we’ll always be best friends, I promise,” Cal says sincerely.  _

_ “I’ll hold you to that,” you hug him and he returns the hug.  _

He promised he wouldn’t forget about you and that you would always be best friends. Was he just to let Thrawn kill you? The thought of you being dead ate at him. He walked to his fresher and splashed water on his face. 

He looked up in the mirror, water dripping off his face. He looked at his eyes, thinking about how they used to be blue. He looked at his clothing, the same time of clothing Trilla wore. For a second he questioned who he was.

His own reflection seemed to move out of sync with him. He furrowed his eyebrows. And suddenly his reflection was him in one of his old ponchos, the dark shadows around his eyes were gone and his blue eyes were back. His reflection self put it’s hand to the mirror. He moved his hand to match it.

“Trust only in the force,” he said to himself, his reflection synced with him again. 

….

_ You are on Tattooine, your mind feels foggy, you don’t know what is going on. You walk around outside, deciding you should make your way to hangar 3-5. You turn the corner and hear a saber ignite and sensing a swing coming at you.  _

_ You duck and roll, grabbing your own saber and igniting it. You face your attacker. _

_ Cal.  _

_ “Cal, I don’t want to fight you. Please, listen to me,” you try to reason. But he says nothing and charges you. You engage in a duel with him, just blocking his attacks. “Cal! Please!”  _

_ “You will die, Jedi,” he growls out and throws his blade at you, you block it. He force pulls it to himself, you stick out his hand and force pull it to you. The saber is caught between the two of you. Until there is no resistance and the inquisitor saber flies to your hand.  _

_ When it reaches you, you instantly feel all the pain, anger and suffering connected to the crystal. It makes you feel like you can’t breathe, you fall to a knee.  _

_ Cal walks over and smirks, “know your limits.” He grabs the saber from you and kicks you onto the ground. He ignites the saber and brings down a fatal blow on you. You quickly react and bring your purple blade up to block and then wrap your ankles around his. You move bringing yourself up and him onto the ground, your blade pointed at him.  _

_ He smirks and grabs your arm, forcing your blade into him, “No! Cal!” _

_ “The Empire will rise again,” he breathes and then stops. You kneel down beside him, water blurring your vision. “Cal! Cal, no please, why did you do that!?” You bawl, why can’t you protect the ones you care about? You pull Cal’s head to your body and cry over your best friend. You let out a loud cry, unable to control your pain.  _

….

Ezra was in the coms room when he heard your cry and pain, he stumbles and leans against the wall. 

“Ezra? What’s wrong?” Hera asks, concern filling her voice. Mando turns to them. 

“It’s….it’s her. She’s hurting. I heard her cry out,” he says with his fingers to his temple. Mando clenched his fists.

“Can you sense where she is?” He asked him.

“No, I just feel her pain, it’s not physical pain though….it’s emotional, she’s suffering,” he breathes out. 

She’s suffering, those words ring in Mando’s head. Thrawn, whatever he is doing to you is harming your mental state, he feels more desperate than ever, knowing you probably feel alone and need him. The thought of you in a dark room left to Thrawn’s emotional torture techniques, he’s knows you are strong, but everyone can only endure so much emotional stress. 

He brings his fist down on the table. Angry that he let Cal use him as a hostage to make you go with him, and now you are suffering. 

Hera looks at him as he smashes the table, “we’re working on finding her, and we will find her. I know you’re worried.” 

“I’m not just worried, I’m angry.”

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all! I have also just started an Oberyn Martell fic call 'Howl for the Viper' as well! It's an Oberyn x original character. I will probably alternate updating this one and that one. If you want to check that one out it would mean so much to me!! <3


	29. Best Chance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Inquisitor Cal Kestis, 4263,” he radios back. 
> 
> “You’re clear sir.”
> 
> Cal shoots out of the hangar, and sets his course for Dantooine, shooting into hyperspace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello you lovely readers and Mando simps! Good Cal is finally back!

You awake in the room on the table, you feel absolutely exhausted. You have tear stained cheeks and your throat is scratchy. What was happening? You just experienced Din, Grogu, and Cal dying over and over being powerless to stop it. It all felt so real. You manage to open your eyes, you hear Thrawn and the scientist across the room.

“It is working admiral, we are harnessing the power from her, and the droid is absorbing it to its power cell,” the scientist says.

“Good, how long will the process take?” you hear that awful smug voice that makes you want to throw up.

“Just a few more injections of the serum, if she can last that long, the stress she’s enduring is taking a toll on her.” You felt that toll, you’re body ached, you could feel your heart beating in your chest quickly. 

“Oh look at that, she’s awake,” Thrawn turns to you, “hello, dear, feeling refreshed?” You spit at him, “Fuck you.”

He just smirks, “you see I am the one with all the power here,” he picks up a syringe that looks just like the last one, “so speaking to me in such a manner is unwise on your part.” He walks over, you struggle against the restraints trying to pull your neck away so you don’t have to go through those vividly realistic nightmares again. 

He grabs your face to hold it still and you feel the pinch of the needle. Then quickly you fade out.

….

Cal lifted the mattress in his quarters, he had a storage compartment there. He opened it, taking out his old blade that was a mix of Master Tepal’s and Cere’s blade. He ignited it, the first time he has seen the orange blade in years. 

_ You know what you have to do Cal. _

An echo of Cere’s voice in his head, he closes his eyes, turns off the saber, “I know.”

He makes his way to the command deck and goes over to the communications officer. He has the orange saber hidden under his clothes, sporting his inquisitor blade on his belt. 

“Lieutenant, I want to know the last time a ship called the Ghost was pinged,” he orders.

“Right away, sir,” the man responds and starts tapping his screen. “Two days ago, heading towards Dantooine."  Dantooine, Cal remembers there was an alliance base located there, he had been once with Cere and Greez. 

He turns to leave the command deck when the commander asks, “what did you need that for?”

Cal thinks quickly, “I’m going to take care of that Mandalorian, he has been a thorn in my side for far too long.” He leaves the deck and heads to the hangar. He goes to his TIE -fighter and starts the engine. 

“Inquisitor, what is your clearance code?” A voice radios in. 

“Inquisitor Cal Kestis, 4263,” he radios back. 

“You’re clear sir.”

Cal shoots out of the hangar, and sets his course for Dantooine, shooting into hyperspace.

….

Mando was sitting in the Hidden Gem with Grogu, he knew he had been neglecting the kid in the midst of everything going on. He went back and forth with Grogu and the little silver ball from the Crest. Grogu kept using the force to bring it back and forth from Mando. 

Mando tried to pay attention to him, but he couldn’t stop thinking about you and what Ezra had said. 

_ “No, I just feel her pain, it’s not physical pain though….it’s emotional, she’s suffering.” _

Suffering. 

Just the thought of you suffering made his blood boil. He would tear this Grand Admiral Thrawn limb from limb if given the chance. He would make Thrawn feel ten times the amount of suffering that he was inflicting upon you. He gritted his teeth under his helmet, he thought about how he would torture Thrawn slowly, making him scream for mercy. 

You needed him, you were all alone, and in a dark place. He hopes you are strong enough to resist them. He knows you are strong, but if you feel helpless...He closes his eyes, he couldn’t imagine seeing you like Cal, dressed in black with a red saber. He wouldn’t let that become your fate. He wouldn’t give up on you.

He realizes Grogu is staring at him and that he made a fist around the silver ball, squeezing it so that Grogu couldn’t take it from his grip. He loosened his hand, “Sorry kid,” he says through the modulator. 

“Come on, let’s see if they have some food made,” he picks him up. Mando was hungry as well, he hasn’t eaten very much or slept for that matter. He can’t sleep well in the bed without you beside him. He leaves the ramp of the Gem and goes into the kitchen. Zeb was just finishing cooking something.  Mando got a bowl of it for Grogu, and would get his later since everyone was in the kitchen to eat, except Sabine.

Once everyone was almost done, Sabine walks in, “hey guys, there’s something we need to talk about, don’t freak out.”

Then Cal walks in.

Everyone stands up, staring at him. Mando tenses, clenching both his fists. 

“Hey guys,” Cal breathes out. Something in Mando snaps and he rushes over and punches him in the face, then grabs him by the collar. 

“What are you doing here!?” He growls, then looks at Sabine, “What is he doing here?!” 

“Hear him out, alright?” She says to him and then looks at everyone else.

“Hear him out? He tortured her, he handed her over to Thrawn!” Mando can only feel his rage right now. 

“He wants to help,” Sabine states. 

Ezra interrupts, “let him go Mando, let’s hear what he has to say.” He ignites his green saber, holding it by Cal. 

Mando scoffs and lets go of Cal’s collar, shoving him back. Cal grabs his own jaw where Mando punched him. 

“Well we’re waiting,” Kallus eventually says. 

Cal looks around, “I didn’t know what Thrawn’s plans were with her, he lied to me. He told me he was going to turn her into an inquisitor, but I learned he is going to make a droid inquisitor by draining the force’s presence in her.”

Ezra looks at him, “that’s impossible, the force is connected to a person.”

“Look, I don’t know the technology behind it, but that is what I know. If Thrawn succeeds, it will kill her,” Cal says and Mando grits his teeth. 

“Why do you care?” Mando barks.

Cal looks directly at him, “because I love her, I just...forgot that I did.”

Hera, Sabine, Ezra, and Zeb all soften up, understanding unlike Mando. They had all known him before. They knew him when he recruited them to help him save you the first time you were captured. They knew the turmoil he had been in when he found out you were still alive after all those years. They knew how much he cared for her then. 

Mando didn’t have that history with him though. Mando had only known him as an imperial inquisitor. The one who used him as a bargaining chip, the one who he heard order more torture to you on the hologram, the one who handed you to Thrawn. 

Cal looks around the room again, “I’m your best chance at saving her.”

Mando just stares at him. It’s quiet in the room until Ezra says something while looking at Cal, “he’s right,” he looks at everyone else, “he can lead us to Thrawn’s cruiser.” 

“How can we trust him?” Mando quickly states.

“We don’t have a choice not to,” Ezra admits, and Mando knows he is right, they would never find Thrawn’s ship in time. 

Mando turns, picking up Grogu.

“Look, Din, we may-” Cal starts but Mando quickly turns and snaps, points a finger at Cal, “You don’t call me that. Only  _ she _ is allowed to call me that.”

He pushes past Cal to go out to the Gem.

  
  



	30. Desperate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cal glared at him, “don’t worry about me.” Cal climbed into his fighter, while Hera, Sabine, Ezra, Kallus and Mando boarded the Ghost. 
> 
> Sabine noticed the saber on his hip, “a weapon fit for a king.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello you lovely readers and Mando simps! Din and Cal team up is happening!

That night Cal was going over plans with Sabine and Ezra in the coms room, describing how Thrawn’s cruiser was set up and how many troopers he had. If they were going to save you, they had to act quickly.

The slides open with a hiss and Mando walks in, he doesn’t move, he just stares at Cal, resisting the urge to smash his face into the ground. 

Sabine looks over, “Mando, hey, you should come listen to this, we’ll need a game plan to infiltrate Thrawn’s cruiser. He hesitantly walks over, “you’re listening to what he says? He could lead us straight into a trap.”

Cal looks up at him, “I told you, I want to save her, I’m on your side.”

“We saw the transmission where you ordered her to be tortured, causing her to scream out in pain. So oddly enough, I don’t believe you,” Mando growls through his modulator, stepping closer to him, wanting to just pull out his blaster and shoot him in the chest.

“You know, she never struck me as going for the possessive type,” Cal says, getting in front of the t-visor. 

“It’s not possessive to hate the person that tortured her,” Mando barks.

Ezra steps in between them, “look, you both love her and want to save her right?” They stay staring at each other in silence. “Well fighting each other isn’t going to help her, and she wouldn’t want you too.”

Mando looks at Ezra, then steps back, thinking about what you told him on Ilum. How your test had been him and Cal trying to kill each other and she was supposed to choose, and she ended up choosing both of you. What would happen when they rescued you? Cal would be back in your life. 

Would you then choose Cal over him?

Ezra looks at Cal, “continue with the plan.”

Cal stares at Mando for another moment then turns back to the table, “I can get into the ship in my TIE fighter, they won’t think anything of me. I can clear the hangar for the Ghost to land.”

Sabine listens, “that could work.”

Mando scoffs, “that’s if he just doesn’t have all the troopers lined up for us.”

Cal puts his hands on the chestplate and pushes him, “don’t make me angry,” he threatens, feeling a bit of his inquisitor side boil to the surface. But Mando is pissed now, he charges him, grabbing the front of his inquisitor armor and throws him onto the ground. Cal grabs his old saber and ignites the orange blade.

Ezra quickly ignites his green blade, “both of you stop it now! She needs us! Y/n needs both of you to put your differences aside! If either of you want to save her, you’ll have to work together!”

They both are in a fighting stance, Mando sighs, he’ll do whatever it takes to save you. He stands straight, Cal does the same, switching off the orange blade. 

Ezra looks between them and then turns his lightsaber off, “good. So once we get the ghost on the ship, you, Cal and I can make our way to where they are holding her, while everyone else defends the ghost.”

Sabine looks at him, “this could work.”

Mando keeps his helmet focused on Cal. This plan could work, as long as Cal keeps his word.

….

  
  


_ You awake in the dark room again, you don’t hear the voices of Thrawn or the scientist this time. You tiredly open your eyes, you look over at where Thrawn and the other man normally are. Instead you see a silver beskar armored figure and a figure with orange hair. Din and Cal. _

_ “D-Din,” you croak. _

_ The visor turns toward you, and so does Cal’s face. _

_ “Din…” you start sobbing as he walks over to the table. _

_ “Quiet,” he harshly orders. _

_ You furrow your eyebrows, “Din, please just get me out of here, I can’t take anymore. I just want to go back with you.” _

_ The visor laughs above you, “I’ve actually found not having you around to be great.” _

_ You stare at him, “Din...what?” _

_ “I realized you are a waste of my time, I don’t love you,” he says coldly through the modulator. Cal is now stepping over, “he’s realized it just like I did, you’re worthless. Nobody could ever love you.” _

_ You glance at Cal, then at Din, tears running down the sides of your face, “no, you don’t know what you are saying Din. You don’t mean this,” you try to plead with him. _

_ “Oh I know exactly what I am saying. You are nothing to me, I’m better off without you,” the man in beskar says. _

_ You can’t even see through your tears anymore as they blurred your vision, “Din, please…” _

_ Cal speaks, “begging won’t get you anything.” He holds up another syringe. You struggle against the restraints. _

_ “No! Please, Cal!” You look at Din with scared eyes, “Din, don’t let him please!” _

_ The visor turns to Cal, “Do it.” You then feel the familiar pinch in your neck and fade out. _

…..

Din checked his armor and his weapons, making sure he was ready. He looks between his beskar spear and the dark saber hilt. Cal said there would be dark troopers, and he remembers from Gideon’s ship that the spear was the only thing that did damage. But the darksaber would be able to cut through those droids easily. 

He reached for the hilt and clipped it onto his belt. 

Mando picked up the green child. Zeb was going to stay at the base with Grogu. Mando was not risking taking Grogu on the Ghost in case the mission went south. He made his way down the ramp of the Gem and into the base. He handed him to Zeb, “be good.”

The child cooed up at him and tilted his head. Zeb spoke up, “don’t worry mate, I can handle him. You focus on getting her back.”

Mando nodded, and walked to the hangar, everyone was preparing. Cal was by his TIE-fighter. 

Hera spoke loudly, “alright, is everyone ready for this?” 

Mando turned his t-visor towards Cal, “stick to the plan, or I’ll make you regret it.”

Cal glared at him, “don’t worry about me.” Cal climbed into his fighter, while Hera, Sabine, Ezra, Kallus and Mando boarded the Ghost. 

Sabine noticed the saber on his hip, “a weapon fit for a king.”

Mando turned to her, “or a weapon fit for someone desperate.” He was desperate. He needed to save you. He needed to hold you again. He needed to sleep next to you again. He needed to kiss you again. 

He hadn’t been able to relax since you had been taken. This was his one and only chance to get you back.

He couldn’t fail.

  
  



	31. It's You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You’re too late,” the scientist says with a smile. 
> 
> “And you made a mistake taking her from a mandalorian,” he growls and engages his whistling birds, and they take out the scientist. His body lands on the ground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello you lovely readers and Mando simps! Sorry for the late update with this story! I was having some writers block with this story and just had a bunch for my Oberyn one and was just working on that one for a bit.

They were in hyperspace, Mando sat tensed in the cockpit the entire time. He hoped they weren’t too late already. 

This entire mission depended on Cal keeping his word. Mando didn’t trust that. He didn’t trust Cal. Cal had beaten and tortured you, and now claims he wants to save you. It doesn’t sit right with Mando. Mando looks at Hera.

“Do you really think we can trust him to do his part?” He questions her.

Hera turns in her seat, “I’m weary of it, but yes, I do,” she states and Mando sits back in his seat. 

Hera goes on, “you didn’t know him before. When she was captured before, and he found out she was still alive after being there for years, he did everything he could to find a way to get on Vader’s star destroyer. You may not believe it, but even now, somewhere deep down he still loves her as he did then. When you love someone like that….” she looks down, thinking about Kanan, “you don’t ever stop.” 

She looks back up at him, “much like how you love her.”

He turns his helmet to her, but stays quiet. She was right though, he would ever stop loving you. He didn’t care about anything else when it came to you, not even his creed. He couldn’t stop loving you if he tried to.

A few hours later they are coming out of hyperspace, Cal should already have the bay cleared, but the arrival of the Ghost will make Thrawn send troops to the bay quickly and charge the dark troopers.

The ship jolts out of hyperspace, and Hera quickly flies to the bay. Mando sees stormtroopers laying on the ground, with saber slashes. Cal had kept his word. Hera lands the ship in the bay.

“We have to move quickly,” Ezra says to Mando as they lower the ramp.

“Find her quickly, we’ll have all the stormtroopers on board on us soon,” Sabine says through her own modulated helmet.

Mando nods to her and steps out with Ezra and goes over to meet up with Cal. Mando turns his helmet to Cal when they get over to him. Cal looks at him, “I told you, I want to save her.”

Mando slightly nods his helmet to him and they run out of the bay through the halls. Mando uses his blaster on stormtroopers they run into, Ezra and Cal both have their sabers ignited to easily block and slice through anyone that gets in their way. The cruiser is huge, much larger than any of the other ones he had been on before.

“Do you even know where she is?” He questions the red headed Jedi. 

“I know the general section of the ship. Not the specific cell,” Cal admits.

“What?” Mando sharply barks at him. He lifts his arm and points a finger at him, “you didn’t think to mention that?”

Cal glares at him, “don’t start with me.”

“Hey! Now is not the time to fight each other-” Ezra says but then they see dark figures come around the corner. 

“Dark troopers,” Cal says. He and Ezra take a fighting stance with their sabers.

Mando put’s his blaster away and grabs the hilt of the saber on his belt. He hasn’t ignited the blade since Gideon’s ship. He’s never even fought with it. He holds the hilt, emitter pointing downwards and flips the switch. The black blade with white edges appears. 

The dark troopers shoot at them while marching toward them. Cal and Ezra deflect the bolts coming at them, Mando, on the other hand isn’t able to sense where shots are coming in at him, but his beskar deflects them for him. 

Ezra force pushes the one in front back into one behind it. Mando and Cal run forward and cut through some of the storm troopers. One grabs his cape behind him and yanks him back onto the ground. Cal turns and cuts through the body of it and then force crushes another one approaching. 

Ezra gets over to them, “come on, we need to move.”

“This way,” Cal says and they follow him through the halls. They get to the section of the ship that Cal knows Thrawn had the interrogation rooms, “should be one of these rooms, start checking them.”

They separate to check the rooms, but stormtroopers are shooting at them soon. Cal and Ezra stay in the hall to deflect the shots.

“Keep checking the rooms, we’ll handle this,” Ezra yells out to Mando. He nods to him, and keeps checking the rooms. He gets to one, and this door looks different to him. He hits the button that makes the door open with a hiss.

He sees you laying on the table across the room, strapped down. He’s made it to you. He starts to run over to you, when a blaster points at him, and he quickly draws his. Some man in a lab coat is in the room by a monitor. 

“You’re too late,” the scientist says with a smile. 

“And you made a mistake taking her from a mandalorian,” he growls and engages his whistling birds, and they take out the scientist. His body lands on the ground.

Mando turns back to you and runs over. He takes your face in his hands, “hey, Red, wake up.” He sees the dried tear stains on your cheeks, you look pale and exhausted.

You feel weak, but you can tell your mind isn’t in a fog now, you hear his voice and slowly blink your eyes open, “D-Din…you’re….you’re real?” Your voice is hoarse and scratchy. 

He pulls his helmet off, knowing that Cal or Ezra could walk in, but he doesn’t care, “yeah, I’m real.” He undoes the restraints on your hands and holds one of them to his cheek, “I’m right here.”

You manage to smile slightly, but then you feel sleepy, you close your eyes.

Din feels your hand go limp as you close your eyes, “y/n? Hey!” Panic flashes across his face, he shakes you at your shoulders, he leans his forehead against yours, “please...please...don’t give up.” He begs and tears form in his own eyes. 

Out in the hall, Cal and Ezra look at each other when they no longer can feel you in the force. They quickly take out the rest of the stormtroopers around them and run to the room. They see Din, unhelmeted with his forehead against yours. They both stare quietly.

A tear goes down Cal’s cheek. He knows he caused this. He was weak, he gave into Vader, he became an inquisitor, he tortured you, and he handed you over to Thrawn. 

This was his fault.

“Move,” he says to Mando.

“Get the fuck away from me,” Mando yells, not turning away from you.

Cal steps up, “move…. I can save her.”

Mando turns and looks at him, both him and Ezra can see his face and the water in his eyes, “how?”

Ezra looks at Cal, “she isn’t just injured, she’s gone...Cal you know what it will take.”

Cal looks at him, “I know...but I have to make this right,” he looks at Mando, “let me fix this.” Mando stands up and Cal holds out his lightsaber, “give this to her, I want her to have it, and tell her that I’m sorry...for everything.”

Mando stares at him, then takes the saber hilt and nods. He steps away from the table. Cal steps forward, he looks at your face, and places a hand over your abdomen. He closes his eyes and channels his energy into you. 

Mando watches the color return to your skin as you blink your eyes open.

You look around, seeing Cal over you. He opens his eyes and they aren’t yellow and red anymore. His normal blue eyes are back. You reach up and touch his cheek, “Cal,” you smile, “it’s you.”

He smiles back at you for a second, but then it’s gone. Then he is gone, and his clothes fall to the ground.

  
  
  
  
  



End file.
